THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

RIVERSIDE 


HISTORY  OF  THE  JEWS 
IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

FROM  THE  EARLIEST  TIMES 
UNTIL    THE    PRESENT    DAY 


mSTORY  OF  THE  JEWS 
IN   RUSSIA  AND   POLAND 

FROM  THE  EARLIEST  TIMES 
UNTIL  THE  PRESENT  DAY 

S.  M.  DUBNOW 

TRANSLATED    FROM   THE    RUSSIAN 
BY 

I.  FRIEDLAENDER 
VOLUME  I 

FROM   THE  BEGINNING  UNTIL  THE  DEATH   OF  ALEXANDER  I 

(1825) 


Philadelphia 

The  Jewish  Publication  Society  of  America 

1916 


^■1 


Copyright,  1916,  by 
The  Jewish  Publication  Society  or  America 


TBANSLATOE'S  PEEFACE 

Jt  is  not  my  intention  to  expatiate  in  these  prefatory 
remarks  on  the  present  work  and  its  author.  A  history  of  the 
Jews  in  Eussia  and  Poland  from  the  pen  of  S.  M.  Dubnow 
needs  neither  justification  nor  recommendation.  The  want  of 
a  work  of  this  kind  has  long  been  keenly  felt  by  those  interested 
in  Jewdsh  life  or  Jewish  letters,  never  more  keenly  than  to-day 
when  the  flare  of  the  world  conflagration  has  thrown  into 
ghastly  relief  the  tragic  plight  of  the  largest  Jewry  of  the 
Diaspora.  As  for  the  author,  his  power  of  grasping  and  pre- 
senting the  broad  aspects  of  general  Jewish  history  and  his 
lifelong,  painstaking  labors  in  the  particular  field  of  Eussian- 
.lewish  histor}'  fit  him  in  singular  measure  to  cope  with  the 
task  to  which  this  work  is  dedicated. 

In  what  follows  I  merely  wish  to  render  account  of  the 
English  translation  and  of  the  form  of  the  original  which  it 
has  endeavored  to  reproduce. 

The  translation  is  based  upon  a  work  in  Eussian  which  was 
especially  prepared  by  Mr.  Dubnow  for  The  Jewish  Publica- 
tion Society  of  America.  Those  acquainted  with  modern 
Jewish  literature  in  the  Eussian  language  know  that  the 
author  of  our  book  has  treated  the  same  subject  in  his  general 
history  of  the  Jewish  people,  in  three  volumes,  and  in  a  num- 
ber of  special  studies  published  by  him  in  the  periodical 
Yevreyskaya    Starina    ("Jewish    Antiquity").     Upon    this 


4  TRANSLATOR'S  PREFACE 

material  Mr.  Dubnow  has  freely  drawn  for  the  present  work, 
after  subjecting  it  to  a  careful  revision,  and  so  supplementing 
and  co-ordinating  it  that  to  all  intents  and  purposes  the  book 
issued  herewith  is  a  new  and  independent  publication.  More- 
over, the  history  of  Eussian  Jewry  after  1881,  comprising  the 
gruesome  era  of  pogroms  and  expulsions,  has  been  written  by 
Mr.  Dubnow  entirely  anew,  and  will  appear  for  the  first  time 
as  part  of  this  work.  The  present  publication  may  thus 
properly  claim  to  give  the  first  comprehensive  and  systematic 
account  of  the  history  of  Eusso-Polish  Jewry. 

The  work  is  divided  into  two  volumes.  The  first  volume, 
now  offered  to  the  public,  contains  the  history  of  the  Jews  of 
Eussia  and  Poland  from  its  beginnings  until  the  death  of 
Alexander  I.,  in  1825.  The  second  volume  will  continue  the 
historic  narrative  up  to  the  very  threshold  of  the  present.  The 
book  was  originally  scheduled  to  appear  at  a  later  date.  The 
great  events  of  our  time,  which  have  made  the  question  of 
Eussian  Jewry  a  part  of  the  world  problem,  suggested  the 
importance  of  earlier  publication.  In  order  that  there  might 
be  as  little  delay  as  possible  in  giving  the  book  to  the  public, 
the  maps  and  the  bibliographical  apparatus  were  reserved  for 
the  second  volume.  The  same  volume,  which,  it  is  hoped,  will 
appear  in  the  course  of  this  year,  will  contain  also  the  index 
to  the  whole  work. 

My  task  as  translator  has  been  considerably  facilitated  by 
the  self-abnegation  of  the  author,  who  gave  me  permission  to 
act  as  editor  and  to  adapt  the  original  to  the  requirements  of 
an  English  version.  I  have  made  frequent  use  of  the  privilege 
accorded  to  me,  and  have  endeavored  throughout  to  bridge  the 
wide  gap  which  stretches  between  the  Eussian  and  American 
reading  public  in  matters  of  literary  taste.  This  editorial 
activity  includes  a  number  of  changes  in  the  framework  of  the 


TRANSLATOR'S  PREFACE  5 

book,  which  was  originally  divided  into  sections  of  dispropor- 
tionate length,  and  has  now  been  arranged  in  a  more  uniform 
manner.  In  the  course  of  this  rearrangement,  it  became 
necessar}'  to  change  the  wording  of  some  of  the  headings  so  as 
to  bring  them  into  greater  conformity  with  English  literary 
usage.  It  should  be  pointed  out,  however,  that  the  changes 
made  are  of  a  stylistic  nature,  or  relate  only  to  the  skeleton 
of  the  book.  With  the  exception  of  a  few  passages,  they  leave 
the  contents  untouched,  and  the  responsibility  for  the  latter 
rests  entirely  with  the  author. 

As  translator  I  had  resolved  to  keep  myself  in  the  back- 
ground and  act  solely  as  the  interpreter  of  the  author.  Much 
to  my  regret  I  found  myself  unable  to  maintain  this  attitude 
uniformly.  The  text  was  already  in  type  when  it  was  borne 
in  upon  me  that  the  subject  of  the  book,  dealing  as  it  does 
with  the  lands  of  Eastern  Europe,  was  a  terra  incognita  to  the 
average  American  reader,  and  that  many  things  in  it  must 
perforce  be  wholly  or  partly  unintelligible  to  him  if  left  with- 
out an  explanation.  There  was  nothing  for  me  to  do  but  to 
step  into  the  breach  and  supply  the  deficiency.  I  did  so  by 
adding  a  number  of  footnotes,  which,  in  distinction  from  those 
of  the  author,  are  placed  in  brackets.  With  very  few  excep- 
tions these  notes  are  not  of  a  supplementary,  but  of  an  explana- 
tory, nature.  They  are  confined  to  such  information  as  the 
reader  may  need  to  grasp  the  full  bearing  of  the  text.  I  trust 
that  in  some  small  measure  these  detached  notes  may  serve 
instead  of  a  systematic  account  of  the  general  development  of 
Eastern  Europe,  which,  it  was  originally  hoped,  might  be  sup- 
plied by  the  authoritative  pen  of  ]\Ir.  Dubnow  himself,  as  a 
background  for  the  history  of  Russo-Polish  Jewry.  An  attempt 
in  this  direction,  within  a  narrow  compass  and  with  no  pretense 


6  TRANSLATOR'S  PREFACE 

to  completeness,  has  been  undertaken  by  the  present  writer  in 
a  recent  publication  of  his  own/ 

A  word  must  be  said  concerning  the  spelling  of  foreign 
names  and  terms,  which  are  naturally  numerous  in  a  work 
like  the  present.  After  considerable  deliberation  I  decided 
on  the  phonetic  method,  as  being  the  most  convenient  from 
the  point  of  view  of  the  reader.  I  have  consequently  endeav- 
ored to  reproduce,  as  far  as  possible,  the  original  sounds  of  all 
foreign  words  in  English  characters.  In  conformity  with  this 
principle,  I  have  adopted  the  spelling  Tzar,  instead  of  Czar. 
As  far  as  I  am  aware,  the  only  exception  is  the  Russian  word 
ukase,  which  reflects  in  its  spelling  the  effect  of  French  trans- 
mission, and  is  to  be  pronounced  ookaz,  with  the  accent  on  the 
last  syllable.  Needless  to  say  I  have  had  to  resort  to  artificial 
contrivances  to  indicate  those  sounds  which  are  unknown  in 
English,  but  I  have  reduced  these  contrivances  to  a  minimum. 
They  are  as  follows:  zh  represents  the  Slavic  sound  which 
corresponds  to  French  ;';  Ich  stands  for  the  sound  which  is 
to  be  pronounced  like  hard  German  ch  (as  in  lachen,  not  as 
in  hrechen) ;  tz  is  the  equivalent  of  a  Slavic  letter  which  is  to 

^  "  The  Jews  of  Russia  and  Poland.  A  Bird's-Eye  View  of  Their 
History  and  Culture"  (G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons,  1915).  To  avoid  any 
misconception  on  the  part  of  the  reader,  I  desire  to  point  out  that 
the  aim  and  scope  of  my  little  volume  are  totally  different  from 
those  of  Mr.  Dubnow's  work.  As  indicated  in  the  title  of  my 
sketch,  and  as  stated  in  the  preface  to  it,  my  purpose  was  none 
other  than  to  present  a  "  bird's-eye  view  "  of  the  subject,  to  point 
cut  the  large  bearings  of  the  problem,  with  no  intention  on  my 
part  "  to  offer  new  and  independent  results  of  investigation." 
The  publication  is  based  on  a  course  of  lectures  delivered  by  me 
before  the  Dropsie  College  for  Hebrew  and  Cognate  Learning  in 
Philadelphia  in  March,  1915.  My  natural  reluctance  to  anticipate 
Mr.  Dubnow's  large  work  was  overcome  by  the  encouragement 
of  several  friends,  among  them  Mr.  Dubnow  himself,  who,  from 
their  knowledge  of  public  affairs,  thought  that  a  succinct,  popular 
presentation  of  the  destinies  of  the  Jews  in  the  Eastern  war  area 
was  a  word  in  due  season. 


TRANSLATOR'S  PREFACE  7 

be  pronounced  like  German  z.  To  avoid  mispronunciation, 
^  in  all  foreign  words  has  been  spelled  gh  before  e  and  i.  U  in 
these  words  is  to  be  pronounced  like  oo,  and  a  like  French  and 
short  German  a.  With  every  desire  for  uniformity,  I  have 
yet  little  doubt  that  inconsistencies  will  be  foimd,  particularly 
in  the  transliteration  of  Hebrew,  which,  as  a  Semitic  idiom, 
is  more  difficult  of  phonetic  reproduction  than  are  even  the 
Slavic  languages.  I  hope  that  these  inconsistencies  are  not 
numerous  enough  to  be  offensive. 

The  method  of  transliteration  referred  to  in  the  foregoing 
presents  a  special  difficulty  in  the  case  of  Polish  names,  in 
view  of  the  fact  that  the  Polish  language  uses  the  general 
European  alphabet,  and  that  the  Polish  spelling  of  such  names 
has  found  access  to  other  languages.  In  some  instances  even 
the  question  of  identity  may  arise.  Thus,  to  quote  but  one 
example  out  of  many,  the  name  ChmielnicTci,  written  in  this 
form  in  Polish,  differs  considerably  from  the  phonetic  spelling 
Khmelnitzki,  adopted  in  this  volume.  To  meet  this  difficulty, 
the  index  to  this  work  will  give  all  Polish  names  and  expres- 
sions both  in  their  transliterated  English  forms  and  in  their 
original  Polish  spelling. 

In  conclusion,  it  is  my  pleasant  dutj^  to  record  my  appre- 
ciation of  the  help  rendered  me  in  my  task.  I  am  indebted 
to  the  Honorable  Mayer  Sulzberger  for  his  great  kindness  in 
reading  the  proofs  of  this  volume  and  in  giving  me  the  benefit 
of  his  subtle  literar}'  judgment.  Professor  Alexander  Marx 
has  assisted  me  by  reading  the  proofs  and  making  a  number 
of  suggestions.  My  thanks  are  finally  due  to  Miss  Henrietta 
Szold  for  her  indefatigable  and  most  valuable  co-operation. 

I.  F. 

New  Yobk,  May  19,  1916. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTEB  PAGE 

I.  The  Jewish  Diaspora  in  Eastern  Europe 

1.  The  Jewish   Settlements  on  the   Shores  of  the 

Black  Sea  13 

2.  The  Kingdom  of  the  Khazars 19 

3.  The  Jews   in   the   Early  Russian   Principalities 

and  in  the  Tataric  Khanate  of  the  Crimea. . .     29 

II.  The  Jewish  Colonies  in  Poland  and  Lithuania 

1.  The  Immigration  from  Western  Europe  during 

the  Period  of  the  Crusades 39 

2.  The  Charter  of  Prince  Boleslav  and  the  Canons 

of  the  Church 43 

3.  Rise  of  Polish  Jewry  under  Casimir  the  Great. . .  50 

4.  Polish  Jewry  during  the  Reign  of  Yaghello 54 

5.  The   Jews   of   Lithuania   during   the   Reign    of 

Vitovt    •. 58 

6.  The  Conflict  between  Royalty  and  Clergy  under 

Casimir  IV.  and  His  Sons 61 

III.  The  Autonomous  Center  in  Poland  at  Its  Zenith 

(1501-1648) 

1.  Social  and  Economic  Conditions 66 

2.  The  Liberal  Regime  of  Sigismund  1 70 

3.  Liberalism  and  Reaction  in  the  Reigns  of  Sigis- 

mund Augustus  and  Stephen  Batory 83 

4.  Shlakhta  and  Royalty  in  the  Reigns  of  Sigis- 

mund III.  and  Vladislav  IV 91 

IV.  The  Inner  Life  of  Polish  Jewry  at  Its  Zenith 

1.  Kahal  Autonomy  and  the  Jewish  Diets 103 

2.  The  Instruction  of  the  Young 114 

3.  The  High-Water  Mark  of  Rabbinic  Learning 121 

4.  Secular  Sciences,  Philosophy,  Cabala,  and  Apolo- 

getics       131 


10  CONTENTS 

CHAPTEB  PAGE 

V.  The  Autonomous  Center  in  Poland  dubinq  Its  De- 
cline (1648-1772) 

1.  Economic    and    National    Antagonism    in     the 

Ukraina  139 

2.  The  Pogroms  and  Massacres  of  1648-1649 144 

3.  The  Russian  and  Swedish  Invasions  (1654-1658) .  153 

4.  The  Restoration  (1658-1697) 158 

5.  Social  and  Political  Dissolution 167 

6.  A  Frenzy  of  Blood  Accusations 172 

7.  The  Massacre  of  Uman  and  the  First  Partition  of 

Poland    180 

VI.  The  Inner  Life  of  Polish  Jewry  during  the  Period 
OF  Decline 

1.  Jewish  Self-Government   188 

2.  Rabbinical  and  Mystical  Literature 198 

3.  The  Sabbatian  Movement 204 

4.  The  Frankist  Sect 211 

5.  The  Rise  of  Hasidism  and  Israel  Baal-Shem-Tob.  220 

6.  The  Hasidic  Propaganda  and  the  Growth  of  Tzad- 

dikism    229 

7.  Rabbinism,  Hasidism,  and   the  Forerunners   of 

Enlightenment    235 

VII.  The  Russian  Quarantine  against  Jews  (till  1772) 

1.  The  Anti-Jewish  Attitude  of  Muscovy  during  the 

Sixteenth  and  Seventeenth  Centuries 242 

2.  The  Jews  under  Peter  I.  and  His  Successors 246 

3.  Elizabeth    Petrovna    and    the    First    Years    of 

Catherine  II 254 

VIII.  Polish  Jewry  during  the  Period  of  the  Partitions 

1.  The  Jews  of  Poland  after  the  First  Partition 262 

2.  The  Period  of  the  Quadrennial  Diet  (1788-1791) .   278 

3.  The  Last  Two  Partitions  and  Berek  Yoselovich . .  291 

4.  The  Duchy  of  Warsaw  and  the  Reaction  under 

Napoleon ^98 


CONTENTS  11 

OHAPTEB  PAGE 

IX.  The  Beginnings  of  the  Russian  Regime 

1.  The  Jewish  Policy  of  Catherine  II.  (1772-1796; . .   306 

2.  Jewish  Legislative  Schemes  during  the  Reign  of 

Paul  1 321 

3.  Dyerzhavin's  "  Opinion  "  on  the  Jewish  Problem.  328 

X.  The  "Enlightened  Absolutism"  of  Alexander  1. 

1.  "  The   Committee   for   the   Amelioration   of   the 

Jews  " 335 

2.  The  "  Jewish  Constitution  "  of  1804 342 

3.  The  Projected  Expulsion  from  the  Villages 345 

4.  The  Patriotic  Attitude  of  Russian  Jewry  during 

the  War  of  1812 355 

5.  Economic  and  Agricultural  Experiments 359 

XI.  The  Inneb  Life  of  Russian  Jewry  during  the  Period 
OF  "  Enlightened  Absolutism  " 

1.  Kahal  Autonomy  and  City  Government 366 

2.  The  Hasidic  Schism  and  the  Intervention  of  the 

Government    371 

3.  Rabbinism,  Hasidism,  and  Enlightened  "  Berlin- 

erdom  "    379 

XII.  The  Last  Years  of  Alexander  I. 

1.  "  The  Deputation  of  the  Jewish  People  " 390 

2.  Christianizing  Endeavors  396 

3.  "  Judaizing  "  Sects  in  Russia 401 

4.  Recrudescence  of  Anti-Jewish  Legislation 403 

5.  The  Russian  Revolutionaries  and  the  Jews 409 


CHAPTER  I 

THE  JEWISH  DIASPORA  IN  EASTERN  EUROPE 

1.  The  Jewish  Settle3iients  ox  the  Shores  of  the 
Black  Sea 

From  the  point  of  view  of  antiquity  the  Jewish  Diaspora  in 
the  east  of  Europe  is  the  equal  of  that  in  the  west,  though 
vastly  its  inferior  in  geographic  expansion  and  spiritual  devel- 
opment. It  is  even  possible  that  the  settlement  of  Jews  in 
the  east  of  Europe  antedates  their  settlement  in  the  west.  For 
Eastern  Europe,  beginning  with  Alexander  the  Great,  received 
its  immigrants  from  the  ancient  lands  of  Hellenized  Asia, 
while  the  immigration  into  Western  Europe  proceeded  in  the 
main  from  the  Roman  Empire,  the  heir  to  the  Hellenic 
dominion  of  the  East. 

Among  the  ancient  Jewish  settlements  in  Eastern  Europe 
the  colonies  situated  on  the  northern  shores  of  the  Black  Sea, 
now  forming  a  part  of  the  Russian  Empire,  occupy  a  prominent 
place. 

Far  back  in  antiquity  the  Greeks  of  Asia  Minor  and  the 
Ionian  Islands  gravitated  towards  the  northern  shores  of  the 
Pontus  Euxinus,  the  fertile  lands  of  Tauris — ^the  present 
Crimea.^    Beginning  with  the  sixth  century  b.  c.  e.,  they  estab- 

['  Later  on  the  author  differentiates  between  Tauris  and  the 
Crimea,  using  the  former  term  to  designate  the  northern  coast  of 
the  Black  Sea  in  general,  with  the  Crimea  as  a  part  of  it.  The 
modern  Russian  Government  of  Tavrida  is  similarly  made  up  of 
two  sections:  the  larger  northern  part  consists  of  the  mainland, 
the  smaller  southern  part  is  identical  with  the  Crimean  Peninsula, 
connected  with  the  mainland  by  the  Isthmus  of  Perekop.  In 
antiquity  the  name  Tauri,  or  Taurians,  was  restricted  to  the 
inhabitants  of  the  mountainous  south  coast  of  the  Crimea.] 


14  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

lished  their  colonies  in  those  parts,  whence  they  exported  corn 
to  their  homeland,  Greece.  When,  after  the  conquests  of  Alex- 
ander the  Great,  Judea  became  a  part  of  the  Hellenistic  Orient, 
and  sent  forth  the  "  great  Diaspora  "  into  all  the  dominions  of 
the  Seleucids  and  Ptolemies,  one  of  the  branches  of  this  Dias- 
pora must  have  reached  as  far  as  distant  Tauris.  Following  in 
the  wake  of  the  Greeks,  the  Jews  wandered  thither  from  Asia 
Minor,  that  conglomerate  of  countries  and  cities — Cilicia, 
Galatia,  Miletus,  Ephesus,  Sardis,  Tarsus — which  harbored, 
at  the  beginning  of  the  Christian  era,  important  Jewish  com- 
munities, the  earliest  nurseries  of  Christianity.  In  the  first 
century  of  the  Christian  era,  which  marks  the  consolidation  of 
the  Eoman  power  over  the  Hellenized  East,  we  meet  in  the 
Greek  colonies  of  Tauris  with  fully  organized  Jewish  communi- 
ties, which  undoubtedly  represent  offshoots  of  a  much  older 
colonization. 

During  the  same  period  there  flourished  in  the  Crimea  and 
on  the  adjacent  shores  of  the  Black  and  Azov  Seas,  called  by 
the  Greeks  Pontus  and  Maeotis,  in  the  lands  of  the  Scythians, 
Sarmatians,  and  Taurians,  a  number  of  diminutive  Greek  city- 
republics — Cimmerian  Bosporus,  or  Panticapaeum  (at  present 
Kerch),  Phanagoria  (the  Taman  Peninsula),  Olbia,  Gorgippia 
(now  Anapa),  and  others.  The  most  active  of  these  colonies 
was  Bosporus-Panticapaeum,  which  was  situated  at  the  con- 
fluence of  the  Black  and  Azov  Seas.  The  kings,  or  archonts, 
of  Bosporus,  of  the  Greek  dynasty  of  the  Ehescuporides,  ac- 
knowledged the  sovereignty  of  Rome.  They  styled  themselves, 
in  accordance  with  the  customary  formula,  "  friends  of  the 
Caesars  and  the  Romans,"  and  frequently  added  to  their  title 
the  Roman  dynastic  appellation  "  Tiberius-Julius."  The 
Jewish  historian  Josephus  Flavins,  in  depicting  the  irresistible 


THE  DIASPORA  IN  EASTERN  EUROPE  15 

sway  of  the  Roman  world-power  in  his  time,  refers  to  this 
colony  in  the  following  terms :  ''  Why  need  I  speak  of  the 
Heniochi  and  Colchians  and  the  nation  of  the  Tauri,  and  those 
who  inhabit  the  Bosporus  and  the  nations  about  Pontus  and 
Maeotis  ....  who  are  now  subject  to  three  thousand  armed 
men,  and  where  forty  long  ships  keep  in  peace  the  sea  which 
before  was  unnavigable,  and  is  very  tempestuous?''  (Bell. 
Jud.  II.  xvi.  4.)  These  words  were  written  shortly  after  the 
downfall  of  Judea,  about  the  year  80  of  the  Christian  era. 

Now  from  practically  the  same  year  (80-81)  date  the  Greek 
inscriptions  which  were  discovered  on  the  soil  of  ancient  Bos- 
porus in  Tauris,  testifying  to  the  existence  there  of  a  well- 
organized  Jewish  community,  with  a  house  of  prayer.  The 
following  is  the  text  of  one  of  these  inscriptions,  engraved  on  a 
marble  tablet  which  is  kept  in  the  Hermitage  of  Petrograd : 

In  the  reign  of  King  Tiberius  Julius  Rhescuporides,  the  pious 
friend  of  the  Caesars  and  the  Romans,  in  the  year  377/  on  the 
twelfth  day  of  the  month  of  Peritios,  I,  Chresta,  formerly  the  wife 
of  Drusus,  declare  in  the  house  of  prayer  (Trpotrei-xi?)  that  my  foster- 
son  Heracles  is  free  once  [for  all],  in  accordance  with  my  vow,  so 
that  he  may  not  be  captured  or  annoyed  by  my  heirs,  and  may  move 
about  wherever  he  chooses,  without  let  or  hindrance,  except  for  [the 
obligation  of  visiting]  the  house  of  prayer  for  worship  and  constant 
attendance.  [Done]  with  the  approval  of  my  heirs  Iphicleides 
and  Heliconias,  and  with  the  participation  of  the  Synagogue  of  the 
Jews  in  the  guardianship  {ffweirirpoirevoviTrjs  Se  »cot  rijs  ffvvayoy^s  tuv 
loi'Satwc) . 

This  inscription,  paralleled  by  a  similar  document  of  the 
same  period,  was  evidently  meant  to  certify  the  act  of  liber- 
ating a  slave,  which,  according  to  custom,  was  performed 

'  The  date  is  that  of  the  "  Bosporan  era,"  and  corresponds  to  the 
year  80-Sl  of  the  common  era. 
2 


16  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

publicly,  in  the  "  house  of  prayer,"  with  the  participation  of 
the  representatives  of  the  Jewish  community/ 

The  contents  of  the  inscriptions  enable  us  to  draw  the  fol- 
lowing conclusions  bearing  on  the  history  of  the  Jews  during 
that  period : 

1.  The  Jewish  community  in  Taurian  Bosporus  was  made  up 
of  Hellenized  Jews,  who  employed  the  Greek  language  in  their 
religious  and  civil  documents,  and  called  themselves  by  Greek 
names  (Chresta,  Drusus,  Heracles,  Artemisia,  etc.),  2.  While 
assimilated  to  the  Greeks  in  point  of  language,  they  were  firmly 
united  among  themselves  by  the  bond  of  religion,  as  is  shown 
by  the  obligation,  imposed  even  on  the  freedman,  the  libertinus, 
to  visit  the  house  of  prayer  for  worship.  3.  The  Jewish  community 
enjoyed  a  certain  amount  of  civil  autonomy,  as  shown  in  the  case 
cited  above,  in  which  the  community  appears  in  the  role  of  a  jurid- 
ical person,  acting  as  the  guardian  of  the  liberated  slaves. 

It  is  to  be  assumed  that  similar  communities  of  Hellenized 
Jews  were  found  in  the  other  Greek  colonies  of  Tauris,  their 
population  being  constantly  swelled  by  the  influx  of  immi- 
grants from  Asia  Minor,  Syria,  and  Egypt,  particularly  from 
Judeo-Hellenistic  Alexandria.  Since  these  communities  of  the 
first  Christian  century  appear  to  have  been  well-organized  and 
to  have  possessed  their  own  institutions,  we  are  safe  in  assuming 
that  they  were  preceded  by  a  more  primitive  phase  of  com- 
munal Jewish  life,  in  the  shape  of  petty  settlements  and  trad- 
ing stations,  which  must  have  arisen  in  earlier  centuries. 

From  the  first  centuries  of  the  Christian  era  date  a  number 
of  tombstones  bearing  representations  of  the  holy  candlestick, 
the  Menorah.  The  religious  influence  of  Judaism  in  Tauris 
and  in  the  Azov  region  is  attested  by  various  other  indications. 
The  inscriptions  contain  several  references  to  "those  who 

*  In  the  Greek  documents  of  that  period  Synagogue  signifies, 
not  a  house  of  worship,  but  a  religious  community. 


THE  DIASPORA  IN  EASTERN  EUROPE  17 

fear  God  the  Most  High"  ( ae^o/xevoi  ^eov  I'l/rto-Tov) ,  a  phrase 
applied  in  the  Greco-Eoman  world  to  pagans  who  stand  half- 
way between  polytheism  on  the  one  hand  and  Judaism  or 
primitive  Christianity  on  the  other. 

The  Judeo-Hellenistic  Diaspora  in  Tauris,  on  the  northern 
shores  of  the  Black  Sea,  was,  like  its  parent  stock  in  Asia 
Minor,  the  center  of  a  Christian  propaganda.  Towards  the 
end  of  the  third  century  we  find  in  Chersonesus,  near  Sevas- 
topol, Christian  bishops  wielding  considerable  power.  The 
exercise  of  this  power  was  evidently  responsible  for  the 
pagan  rebellion  of  which  we  read  in  the  lives  of  the  Christian 
martyrs  Basil  and  Capiton.  On  the  sixth  of  December  of 
the  year  300  the  pagan  inhabitants  rose  in  revolt  against  these 
two  bishops  and  their  fellow-missionaries,  and  were  joined  by 
the  Jews,  whom,  it  would  seem,  the  zealots  of  the  new  faith 
had  endeavored  equally  to  drag  into  the  bosom  of  the  Church. 
The  existence  of  a  Jewish  settlement  in  the  Bosporan  king- 
dom was  also  known  to  St.  Jerome,  the  famous  Church  father, 
who  lived  at  the  end  of  the  fourth  century  in  far-off  Palestine. 
On  the  authority  of  his  Jewish  teacher  he  applied  verse  20 
in  Obadiah,  "  and  the  captivity  of  Jerusalem  which  is  in 
Sepharad,"  to  the  Taurian  Bosporus,  the  remotest  corner  of  the 
Jewish  Diaspora.* 

With  the  division  of  the  Roman  Empire  into  two  halves 
the  Greco-Judean  colonies  on  the  Black  Sea  were  naturally 
drawn  into  the  sphere  of  influence  of  the  eastern  part,  the 
Empire  of  Byzantium,  tlie  capital  of  which,  Constantinople, 
was  situated  on  the  opposite  coast  of  the  Black  Sea.  Corn- 
er It  is  possible  that  the  identification  was  suggested  by  the  simi- 
larity in  sound  between  Bosporus  and  M-Spharad,  the  Hebrew  for 
"  in  Sepharad."] 


18  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

mercial  relations  brought  the  Tauriau  colony  inio  ever  closer 
contact  with  the  metropolis  of  Byzantium,  and  the  Jews  vied 
with  the  Greeks  in  the  promotion  of  trade.  The  persecutions 
of  the  militant  Church  of  Byzantium  under  the  Emperors 
Theodosius  II.,  Zeno,  and  Justinian,  during  the  fifth  and  sixth 
centuries,  drove  the  Jews  from  the  ancient  provinces  of  the 
Empire  into  the  Taurian  colonies.  In  the  eighth  century  the 
Jewish  population  of  these  colonies  was  so  numerous  that  the 
Byzantine  chronicler  Theophanes  places  the  Jews  in  the  fore- 
front of  the  various  groups  of  the  population.  "  In  Phanagoria 
and  the  neighboring  region,"  says  Theophanes,  "  the  Jews  who 
live  there  are  surrounded  by  many  other  tribes." 

These  colonies  were  frequently  visited  by  Christian  mission- 
aries, who  endeavored  to  convert  the  native  population  to  their 
faith,  and  incidentally  also  to  win  over  the  Jews.  The  Pa- 
triarchs of  Constantinople  were  then  hopeful  of  drawing  the 
people  of  the  Old  Testament  into  th5  fold  of  the  New.  The 
Patriarch  Photius,  of  the  ninth  century,  writes  thus  to  the 
Bishop  of  Bosporus  (Kerch)  :  "  Wert  thou  also  to  capture  the 
Judeans  there,  securing  their  obedience  unto  Christ,  I  should 
welcome  with  my  whole  soul  the  fruits  of  such  beautiful  hopes." 
The  "  Judeans,"  however,  not  only  did  not  take  the  bait  of  the 
missionaries,  but  even  managed  to  spoil  their  propaganda 
among  the  pagans.  The  most  illustrious  of  all  Byzantine  mis- 
sionaries, Cyril  and  Methodius,  had  frequent  occasion  to  quar- 
rel with  "  the  Judeans,  who  blaspheme  the  Christian  faith," 
and  the  boastful  ecclesiastic  legend  asserts  that  the  holy  broth- 
ers "by  prayer  and  eloquence  defeated  the  Judeans  [in  dis- 
putes] and  put  them  to  shame  "  (about  860) . 

The  struggle  between  the  Christian  missionaries  and  the 
Jews  during  that  period  had  for  its  object  the  Khazar  nation, 
part  of  whom  had  embraced  Judaism. 


THE  DIASPORA  IN  EASTERN  EUROPE  19 

2.    TlLii    Kl.NUDOJil    OF   THE    KhAZAKS 

While  Byzantium  was  pressing  on  the  Euxine  colonies  from 
the  west,  endeavoring  to  draw  them,  together  with  the  adjoin- 
ing lands  of  the  Slavs,  into  the  sphere  of  Christian  civilization, 
a  new  power  from  the  east,  from  the  Caucasus  and  the  Caspian 
region,  came  rushing  along  in  the  same  direction.  We  refer  to 
the  Khazars,  or  Kazars/  Forming  originally  a  conglomerate 
of  Finno-Turkisli  tribes,  the  warlike  Khazars  appeared  in 
the  Caucasus  during  the  "  migration  of  nations,"  and  be- 
gan to  make  inroads  into  the  Persian  Empire  of  the  Sassanids, 
often  acting  as  the  tools  of  Persia's  rival,  Byzantium.  The 
great  Arabic  conquests  of  the  seventh  century  and  the  rise 
of  the  powerful  Eastern  Caliphate  checked  the  movement  of  the 
Khazars  towards  the  East,  and  turned  it  westward,  to  the 
shores  of  the  Caspian  Sea,  the  mouths  of  the  Volga  and  the 
Don,  the  Byzantine  colonies  on  the  Black  and  Azov  Seas,  and, 
in  particular,  the  flourishing  region  of  Tauris.  At  the  mouth 
of  the  Volga,  where  the  mighty  river  joins  the  Caspian 
Sea,  near  the  present  city  of  Astrakhan,  arose  the  kingdom  of 
the  Khazars  with  its  capital  Ityl,  the  name  originally  desig- 
nating the  river  Volga,  From  there  the  bellicose  Khazars 
made  constant  raids  upon  the  Slavonian  tribes  far  and  near, 
to  the  very  gates  of  Kiev,  forcing  them  to  become  their 
tributaries. 

Another  Khazar  center  was  established  in  the  Crimea, 
among    Byzantine    Greeks    and    Jews.      From    the    Crimea 

[*  The  Arabic  and  other  medieval  authors  write  the  name  with  a 
kh  (=  hard  German  ch),  hence  the  frequent  spelling  Chazars.  In 
Hebrew  sources  the  word  is  written  with  a.  k  (  D  ) ,  except  in  a 
recently  discovered  document  (see  Schechter,  Jew.  Quart.  Review, 
new  series,  iii.  184),  where  it  is  spelled  with  a  fc  (  p  ).  Besides 
Khazar  and  Kazar,  the  name  is  also  found  in  the  form  Kozar,  or 
Kuzar.'i 


20  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

the  Khazars  pressed  forward  in  the  direction  of  Byzantium 
and  the  Balkan  Peninsula,  constituting  a  serious  menace  to  the 
Eoman  Empire  of  the  East.  As  a  rule,  the  Byzantine  emperors 
concluded  alliances  with  the  kings,  or  khagans,  of  the  Khazars, 
checking  their  unbridled  energy  by  means  of  concessions  and 
the  payment  of  tribute.  In  Constantinople  the  illusion  was 
fostered  that  the  Church,  and  with  it  Byzantine  diplomacy, 
were  in  the  end  bound  to  triumph  over  all  the  Khazars — by 
converting  them  to  Christianity.  With  this  purpose  in  view, 
missionaries  were  dispatched  from  Byzantium,  while  the  local 
bishops  of  Tauris  were  working  zealously  to  the  same  end. 
But  the  task  proved  extremely  difficult,  for  the  Greek  Church 
found  itself  face  to  face  with  a  powerful  rival  in  Judaism, 
which  succeeded  in  establishing  its  hold  on  a  part  of  the 
Khazar  nation. 

While  yet  in  their  pagan  state,  the  Khazars  were  exposed 
at  one  and  the  same  time  to  the  influences  of  three  religions : 
Mohammedanism,  which  pursued  its  triumphant  march  from 
the  Arabic  Caliphate;  Christianity,  which  was  spreading  in 
Byzantium,  and  Judaism,  which,  headed  by  the  Exilarchs  and 
Gaons  of  Babylonia,  was  centered  in  the  Caliphate,  while  its 
ramifications  spread  all  over  the  Empire  of  Byzantium  and  its 
colonies  on  the  Black  Sea.  The  Arabs  and  the  Byzantines 
succeeded  in  converting  several  groups  of  the  Khazar  popula- 
tion to  Islam  and  Christianity,  but  the  lion's  share  fell  to 
Judaism,  for  it  managed  to  get  hold  of  the  royal  dynasty  and 
the  ruling  classes. 

The  conversion  of  the  Khazars  to  Judaism,  which  took  place 
about  740,  is  described  circumstantially  in  the  traditions  pre- 
eerved  among  the  Jews  and  in  the  accounts  of  the  medieval 
Arabic  travelers: 


THE  DIASPORA  IN  EASTERN  EUROPE       21 

The  King,  or  Khagan,  of  the  Khazars,  by  the  name  of  Bulan, 
had  resolved  to  abandon  paganism,  but  was  undecided  as  to  the 
religion  he  should  adopt  instead.  Messengers  sent  by  the  Caliph 
persuaded  him  to  accept  Islam,  envoys  from  Byzantium  endeavored 
to  win  him  over  to  Christianity,  and  representatives  of  Judaism 
championed  their  own  faith.  As  a  result,  Bulan  arranged  a  dis- 
putation between  the  advocates  of  the  three  religions,  to  be 
held  in  his  presence,  but  he  failed  to  carry  away  any  definite 
conviction  from  their  arguments  and  mutual  refutations.  There- 
upon the  King  invited  first  the  Christian  and  then  the  Mohamme- 
dan, and  questioned  them  separately.  On  asking  the  former 
which  religion  he  thought  was  the  better  of  the  two,  Judaism  or 
Mohammedanism,  he  received  the  reply:  Judaism,  since  it  is  the 
older  of  the  two,  and  the  basis  of  all  religions.*  On  asking 
the  Mohammedan,  which  religion  he  preferred,  Judaism  or  Chris- 
tianity, he  received  the  same  reply  in  favor  of  Judaism,  with 
the  same  motivation.  "  If  that  be  the  case,"  Bulan  argued  in 
consequence,  "  if  both  the  Mohammedan  and  the  Christian  acknowl- 
edge the  superiority  of  Judaism  to  the  religion  of  their  antagonist, 
I  too  prefer  to  adopt  the  Jewish  religion."  Bulan  accordingly  em- 
braced Judaism,  and  many  of  the  Khazar  nobles  followed  his 
example. 

According  to  the  Jewish  sources,  one  of  Bulan's  descendants, 
the  Khagan  Obadiah,  Avas  a  particularly  zealous  adherent  of 
Judaism.  He  invited — possibly  from  Babylonia — many  Jew- 
ish sages  to  his  couutry,  to  instruct  the  converted  Khazars  in 
Bible  and  Talmud,  and  he  founded  synagogues,  and  established 
Divine  services. 

'  According  to  another  version  of  the  same  story,  quoted  by 
the  Arabic  geographer  al-Bekri  (d.  1094),  the  Bishop  who  was 
championing  the  cause  of  Christianity  said  in  reply  to  the  King's 
inquiry:  "  I  believe  that  Jesus  Christ,  the  son  of  Mary,  is  the 
Word,  and  that  he  revealed  the  mysteries  of  the  great  and  exalted 
God."  A  Jew  who  lived  at  the  royal  court  and  was  present  at 
the  disputation  interrupted  him  with  the  remark:  "He  [the 
Bishop]  believes  in  things  which  are  unintelligible  to  me." 


22  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

In  the  ninth  and  tenth  centuries,  the  kingdom  of  the 
Kliazars,  governed  by  rulers  professing  the  Jewish  faith,  at- 
tained to  outward  power  and  inner  prosperity.  The  accounts 
of  the  Arabic  writers  of  that  period  throw  an  interesting  light 
on  the  inner  life  of  the  Khazars,  which  was  marked  by  religious 
tolerance.  The  king  of  the  Khazars  and  the  governing  classes 
professed  the  Jewish  religion.  Among  the  lower  classes  the 
three  monotheistic  religions  were  all  represented,  and  in  addi- 
tion a  considerable  number  of  pagans  still  survived.  In  spite 
of  the  fact  that  royalty  and  nobility  professed  Judaism,  the 
principle  of  religious  equality  was  never  violated.  The  khagan 
had  under  him  seven  (according  to  another  version,  nine) 
judges:  two  for  the  followers  of  the  Jewish  religion,  two  each 
for  the  Christians  and  Mohammedans,  and  one  for  the  pagans 
— the  Slavs,  the  Russians,  and  other  races.  Only  occasionally 
did  the  Khazar  king  show  signs  of  intolerance,  particularly 
when  rumors  concerning  Jewish  persecutions  in  other  coun- 
tries came  to  his  ears.  Thus,  on  one  occasion,  about  921,  on 
being  informed  that  the  Mohammedans  had  destroyed  a  syna- 
gogue somewhere  in  the  land  of  Babunj,  the  Khagan  gave 
orders  to  destroy  the  tower  (minaret)  of  a  certain  mosque  and 
to  kill  the  muezzins  (the  heralds  M'ho  call  to  prayer),  explain- 
ing his  attitude  in  these  words :  "  I  should  have  destroyed  the 
mosque  itself,  had  I  not  feared  that  not  a  single  synagogue 
would  be  left  standing  in  the  lands  of  the  Mohammedans.'* 

In  the  kingdom  of  the  Khazars,  favorably  situated  as  it  was 
between  the  Caliphate  of  Bagdad  and  the  Byzantine  Empire, 
the  Jews  evidently  played  an  important  economic  role.  During 
the  ninth  and  tenth  centuries  the  territory  of  the  Khazars  was 
traversed  by  one  of  the  great  trade  routes  which  connected  the 
three  parts  of  the  Old  World.    According  to  the  testimony  of 


THE  DIASPORA  IN  EASTERN  EUROPE  23 

Ibn  Elliordadbeh,  au  Arabic  geographer  of  the  ninth  century, 
Jewish  merchants,  who  were  able  to  speak  the  principal  Asi- 
atic and  European  languages,  "  traveled  from  West  to  East  and 
from  East  to  West,  on  sea  and  by  land."  The  land  route  led 
from  Persia  and  the  Caucasus  "  through  the  country  of  the 
Slavs,  near  the  capital  of  the  Khazars  "  (the  mouth  of  the 
Volga),  by  crossing  the  Sea  of  Jorjan  (the  Caspian  Sea). 
Another  Arabic  writer,  named  Ibn  Fakih,'  who  wrote  shortly 
after  900,  testifies  that  on  the  route  of  the  "  Slav  merchants," 
who  were  trading  between  the  Sea  of  the  Khazars  (the  Cas- 
pian Sea)  and  that  of  Eum  (the  Byzantine  or  Black  Sea),  was 
found  the  Jewish  city  of  Samkers,  on  the  Taman  Peninsula, 
near  the  Crimea." 

During  this  period  of  prosperity  the  kingdom  of  the  Khazars 
received  a  considerable  JcAvish  influx  from  Byzantium,  where 
the  Jews  were  persecuted  by  Emperor  Basil  the  Macedonian 
(867-886),  being  forcibly  converted  to  Christianity,  while 
hundreds  of  Jewish  communities  were  devastated.  The  Jew- 
ish emigrants  from  Byzantium  were  naturally  attracted 
towards  a  land  in  which  Judaism  was  the  religion  of  the  Gov- 
ernment and  the  Court,  though  equal  toleration  was  accorded  to 
all  other  religions.  The  well-known  Arabic  writer  ^Masudi 
refers  to  this  Jewish  immigration  in  the  following  passage: 

[*  The  author,  evidently  relying  on  the  authority  of  Harkavy, 
writes  Ibn  ^harzi.  The  writer  referred  to  by  Harkavy  is  All  Ibn 
Ja'far  ash-Shaizari  (wrongly  called  Ibn  Sharzi),  who  made  an 
extract  from  Ibn  Fakih's  "  Book  of  Countries  "  about  1022.  This 
extract  has  since  been  published  by  de  Goeje  in  his  Bibliotheca 
Oeographicorum  Arabicorum,  vol.  v.  Our  reference  is  found 
there  on  p.  271.  I  have  put  Ibn  Fakih's  name  in  the  text,  as  there 
is  no  reason  to  doubt  that  our  passage  was  found  in  the  original 
work,  which  was  written  more  than  a  hundred  years  earlier.] 

[^  See  on  the  name  of  this  city  de  Goeje's  remarks  in  his  edition  of 
Ibn  Fakih,  p.  271,  note  o.] 


24  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

The  population  of  the  Khazar  capital  consists  of  Moslems, 
Christians,  Jews,  and  pagans.  The  king,  his  court,  and  all  mem- 
bers of  the  Khazar  tribe  profess  the  Jewish  religion,  which  has 
been  the  dominant  faith  of  the  country  since  the  time  of  the 
Caliph  Harun  ar-Rashid.  Many  Jews  who  settled  among  the 
Khazars  came  from  all  the  cities  of  the  Moslems  and  the  lands 
of  Rum  (Byzantium),  the  reason  being  that  the  king  of  Rum 
persecuted  the  Jews  of  his  empire  in  order  to  force  them  to  adopt 

Christianity In  this  way  a  large  number  of  Jews  left  the 

land  of  Rum  in  order  to  depart  to  the  Khazars. 

This  testimony  dates  from  the  year  954.  Contemporaneous 
M'ith  it  is  the  extremely  interesting  correspondence  between 
Joseph,  the  Khagan  of  the  Khazars,  and  Hasdai  Ibn  Shaprut, 
the  Jewish  statesman  of  the  Cordova  Caliphate  in  Spain. 
Being  a  high  official  at  the  court  of  Abderrahman  III., 
Hasdai  maintained  diplomatic  relations  with  the  emperors  of 
Byzantium  and  other  rulers  of  Asia  and  Europe,  and  in  this 
way  came  to  learn  of  the  Khazar  kingdom,  through  the 
Persian  and  Byzantine  ambassadors.  The  news  of  the  exis- 
tence of  a  land  somewhere  beyond  the  seas  where  a  Jew  sat 
on  the  throne,  and  Judaism  was  the  religion  of  the  state,  filled 
Hasdai  with  joy.  Firmly  convinced  that  he  had  found  the  clue 
to  the  lost  Jewish  kingdom  of  which  popular  Jewish  tradition 
had  so  much  to  tell,  the  Jewish  statesman  at  the  Moslem  court 
felt  the  burning  need  of  getting  in  touch  with  the  rulers  of 
Khazaria,  and,  in  case  the  rumors  should  prove  correct,  of 
transferring  his  abode  thither  and  devoting  his  powers  of 
statesmanship  to  his  fellow-Jews.  Prolonged  inquiries  elicited 
the  information  that  the  land  of  the  Khazars  lay  fifteen  days 
by  sea  from  Constantinople,  that  it  stood  in  commercial  rela- 
tions with  Byzantium,  that  the  name  of  its  present  ruler  was 
Joseph,  and  that  the  safest  means  of  communicating  with  him 


THE  DIASPORA  IN  EASTERN  EUROPE  25 

was  by  way  of  Hungary,  Bulgaria,  and  Kussia.  After  several 
vain  attempts  to  get  in  touch  with  the  ruler  of  the  Khazars 
Hasdai  finally  succeeded  in  having  an  elaborate  Hebrew  epistle 
delivered  into  the  hands  of  King  Joseph  (about  955), 

In  his  epistle  Hasdai  first  gives  an  account  of  himself  and 
his  position  at  the  court  of  Cordova,  and  then  proceeds  to  beg 
the  King  of  the  Khazars  to  inform  him  in  detail  of  the  rise  and 
present  status  of  "  the  Jewish  kingdom,"  being  anxious  to  find 
out  "  whether  there  is  anywhere  a  soil  and  a  kingdom  where 
scattered  Israel  is  not  subject  and  subordinate  to  others." 

Were  I  to  know — Hasdai  continues — that  this  is  true,  I  should 
renounce  my  place  of  honor,  abandon  my  lofty  rank,  forsake  my 
family,  and  wander  over  mountains  and  hills,  by  sea  and  on 
land,  until  I  reached  the  dwelling-place  of  my  lord  and  sover- 
eign, there  to  behold  his  greatness  and  splendor,  the  seats  of 
his  subjects,  the  position  of  his  servants,  and  the  tranquillity  of 

the  remnant  of  Israel Having  been  cast  down  from  our 

former  glory,  and  now  living  in  exile,  we  are  powerless  to  answer 
those  who  constantly  say  unto  us:  "  Every  nation  hath  its  own 
kingdom,  while  you  have  no  trace  [of  a  kingdom]  on  earth." 
But  when  we  received  the  news  about  our  lord  and  sovereign, 
about  the  power  of  his  kingdom  and  the  multitude  of  his  hosts, 
we  were  filled  with  astonishment.  We  lifted  our  heads,  our 
spirit  revived,  and  our  hands  were  strengthened,  the  kingdom  of 
my  lord  serving  us  as  an  answer.  Would  that  this  rumor  might 
increase  in  strength  [i.  e.  be  verified],  for  thereby  will  our  great- 
ness be  enhanced! 

After  long  and  painful  waiting  Hasdai  received  the  King^s 
reply.  In  it  the  ruler  of  the  Khazars  gives  an  account  of  the 
heterogeneous  composition  of  his  people  and  the  various 
religions  professed  by  it.  He  describes  how  King  Bulan  and 
his  princes  embraced  the  Jewish  faith  after  testing  the  various 
rival  creeds,  and  how  zealously  it  was  upheld  by  the  Kings 


36  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

Obadiah,  Hezekiah,  Mauasseh,  Hanukkah,  Isaac,  Zebulun, 
Moses  (or  Manasseh  11.)?  Nissi,  Aaron,  Menahem,  Benjamin, 
Aaron  (II.)>  the  last  being  the  father  of  the  writer,  King 
Joseph.    The  King  continues : 

I  reside  [i.  e.  my  residence  is  situated]  at  the  mouth  of  the 
river  Ityl  [Volga] ;  at  the  end  of  the  river  is  found  the  Sea  of 
Jorjan  [the  Caspian  Sea].  The  beginning  of  the  river  is  towards 
the  east,  at  a  distance  of  a  four  months'  journey.  Along  the  banks 
of  the  river  there  are  many  nations  living  in  towns  and  villages, 
in  open  as  well  as  fortified  places.  These  are  their  names:  Burtas, 
Bulgar,  Suvar,  Arisu,  Tzarmis,  Venentit,  Sever,  Slaviun.  ^  Each 
of  these  nations  is  very  numerous,  and  all  of  them  are  tributary 
to  me.  From  there  the  boundary  turns  towards  Buarezm  [prob- 
ably Khwarism],  up  to  Jorjan,  and  all  the  inhabitants  of  the  sea- 
shore, for  a  distance  of  one  month's  journey,  are  tributary  to  me. 
To  the  south  are  found  Semender,  Bak-Tadlud,  up  to  the  gates  of 
Bab  al-Abwab,  which  are  situated  on  the  coast.-  ....  To  the 
west  there  are  Sarkel,  Samkrtz,  Kertz,  Sugdai,  Alus,  Lambat, 
Bartnit,  Alubika,  Kut,  Mankup,  Budak,  Alma,  and  Gruzin.^  All 
these  localities  are  situated  on  the  shores  of  the  Sea  of  Kostantinia* 
towards  the  west  ....  They  are  all  tributary  to  me.  Their  dwell- 
ings and  camping-places  are  scattered  over  a  distance  of  a  four 
months'  journey. 

Know  and  take  notice  that  I  live  at  the  mouth  of  the  river 
[Volga],  and  with  the  help  of  the  Almighty  I  guard  the  entrance 
to  this  river,  and  prevent  the  Russians,  who  arrive  in  ves- 
sels, from  passing  into  the  Caspian  Sea  for  the  purpose  of  making 
their  way  to  the  Ishmaelites  [Mohammedans].  In  the  same 
manner  I  keep  the  enemies  on  land  from  approaching  the  gates 
of  Bab  al-Abwab.  Because  of  this  I  am  at  war  with  them,  and 
were  I  to  let  them  pass  but  once,  they  would  destroy  the  whole 
land  of  the   Ishmaelites  as  far  as  Bagdad  ....  Our  eyes  are 

*  A  group  of  Slav  nations. 

*  A  group  of  Caucasian  cities  (Semender  =  Tarku,  near  Shamir- 
Khan-Shur;    Bab   al-Abwab  =  Derbent). 

*  A  group  of  Crimean  cities  (Kerch,  Sudak,  Mangup,  and  others). 
[*7.  e.  Sea  of  Constantinople,  another  name  for  the  Black  Sea.] 


THE  DIASPORA  IN  EASTERN  EUROPE  27 

[turned]  to  God  and  to  the  wise  men  of  Israel  who  preside 
over  the  academies  of  Jerusalem  and  Babylon.  We  are  far  away 
from  Zion,  but  it  has  come  to  our  ears  that,  on  account  of  our 
sins,  the  calculations  [concerning  the  coming  of  the  Messiah] 
have  become  confused,  so  that  we  know  nothing.  May  it  please 
the  Lord  to  act  for  the  sake  of  His  great  Name.  May  the  destruc- 
tion of  His  temple,  and  the  cutting  off  of  the  holy  service,  and  the 
misfortunes  that  have  befallen  us,  not  appear  small  in  His  sight. 
May  the  words  of  the  prophet  be  fulfilled:  "  And  the  Lord,  whom 
ye  seek,  shall  suddenly  come  to  His  temple  "  (Mai.  iii.  1).  We  have 
nothing  in  our  possession  [concerning  the  coming  of  the  Messiah] 
except  the  prophecy  of  Daniel.  May  the  God  of  Israel  hasten  our 
redemption  and  gather  together  all  our  exiled  and  scattered 
[brethren]  in  my  lifetime,  in  thy  lifetime,  and  in  the  lifetime 
of  the  whole  house  of  Israel,  who  love  His  name. 

The  concluding  phrases  cast  a  shadow  of  doubt  on  the 
authenticity  of  this  epistle  or,  more  correctly,  of  some  parts 
of  both  epistles,  which  more  probably  reflect  the  mournful  Mes- 
sianic temper  of  the  sixteenth  century,  when  this  corre- 
spondence was  brought  to  light  by  Spanish  exiles  who  had  made 
their  way  to  Constantinople,  than  the  state  of  mind  of  a 
Spanish  dignitary  or  a  Khazar  king  of  the  tenth  century. 
However,  the  essential  data  contained  in  Joseph's  epistle 
are  so  completely  in  accord  with  the  reports  of  contemporan- 
eous Arabic  writers  that  the  substance  of  this  correspondence 
may  be  safely  declared  to  be  authentic/ 

Joseph's  epistle  must  have  arrived  in  Spain  about  960. 
Only  a  few  years  later  events  occurred  which  made  this  King 
the  last  ruler  of  the  Khazars.     The  apprehensions,  voiced  in 

*  This  supposition  is  confirmed  by  a  recently  discovered  Genizah 
fragment  containing  a  portion  of  another  Khazar  epistle,  which 
supplements  and  modifies  the  epistle  of  King  Joseph.  See  Schech- 
ter,  "  An  Unknown  Khazar  Document,"  Jewish  Quarterly  Review, 
new  series,  iii.  181  ff. 


28  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

his  letter,  concerning  the  Russians,  with  whom  the  King  was 
at  war,  and  who  were  ready  to  "  destroy  the  whole  land  of  the 
Ishmaelites  as  far  as  Bagdad,"  were  speedily  realized.  A  few 
years  later  the  Slavonian  tribes,  who  had  in  the  meantime  been 
united  imder  the  leadership  of  Russian  princes,  not  only  threw 
off  the  yoke  of  the  Khazars,  whose  vassals  they  were,  but  also 
succeeded  in  invading  and  finally  destroying  their  center  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Volga.  Prince  Svyatoslav  of  Kiev  devastated 
the  Khazar  territories  on  the  Ityl,  and,  penetrating  to  the 
heart  of  the  country,  dislodged  the  Khazars  from  the  Caspian 
region  (966-969).  The  Khazars  withdrew  to  their  posses- 
sions on  the  Black  Sea,  and  established  themselves  in  particu- 
lar on  the  Crimean  Peninsula,  which  for  a  long  time  retained 
the  name  of  Kliazaria. 

The  greatly  reduced  Khazar  kingdom  in  Tauris,  the  survival 
of  a  mighty  empire,  was  able  to  hold  its  own  for  nearly  half  a 
century,  until  in  the  eleventh  century  it  fell  a  prey  to  the  Rus- 
sians and  Byzantines  (1016).  The  relatives  of  the  last  khagan 
fled,  according  to  tradition,  to  their  coreligionists  in  Spain. 
The  Khazar  nation  was  scattered,  and  was  subsequently  lost 
among  the  other  nations.  The  remnants  of  the  Khazars  in  the 
Crimea  who  professed  Judaism  were  in  all  likelihood  merged 
with  the  native  Jews,  consisting  partly  of  Rabbanites  and 
partly  of  Karaites. 

In  this  way  the  ancient  Jewish  settlements  on  the  Crimean 
Peninsula  suddenly  received  a  large  increase.  At  the  same 
time  the  influx  of  Jewish  immigrants,  who,  together  with  the 
Greeks,  moved  from  Byzantium  towards  the  northern  shores  of 
the  Black  Sea,  continued  as  theretofore,  the  greater  part  of 
these  immigrants  consisting  of  Karaites,  who  were  found  in 
large  numbers  in  the  Byzantine  Empire.    Even  the  subsequent 


THE  DIASPORA  IN  EASTERN  EUROPE  29 

dominion  of  the  Pechenegs  and  Polovtzis,  who  ruled  over  the 
Tauris  region  after  the  downfall  of  the  Khazars,  failed  to 
uproot  the  ancient  traditions,  and  as  late  as  the  twelfth  cen- 
tury the  name  Khazaria  meets  us  in  contemporary  documents. 
About  the  year  1175  the  traveler  Pethahiah  of  Ratisbon  visited 
"  the  land  of  the  Kedars  and  that  of  the  Khazars,  which  are 
separated  from  each  other  by  a  sea  tongue,"  meaning  the  con- 
tinental part  of  Tauris,  where  the  nomadic  Polovtzis  (Kedars) 
were  roaming  about,  and  the  Crimean  Peninsula,  between 
which  two  regions  lie  the  Gulf  of  Perekop  and  the  isthmus  of 
the  same  name.  In  the  land  of  the  Kedars  Pethahiah  did  not 
find  genuine  Jews,  but  minim,  heretics  or  sectarians,  who 
"  do  not  believe  in  the  traditions  of  the  sages,  eat  their  Sab- 
bath meal  in  the  dark,  are  ignorant  of  the  Talmudic  forms  of 
the  benedictions  and  prayers,  and  have  not  even  heard  of  the 
Talmud."  It  is  evident  that  the  author  is  describing  the 
Karaites. 

3.  The  Jews  in  the  Early  Russian  Principalities  and  in 
THE  Tataric  Khanate  of  the  Crimea  ^ 

With  the  growth  of  the  Russian  Principality  of  Kiev,  which 
received  its  ecclesiastic  organization  from  the  hands  of  Byzan- 
tine monks,  it  gradually  became  another  objective  of  Jewish 
immigration.     The  Jews  came  thither  not  only  from  Kha- 

[*  During  the  early  centuries  of  its  existence  Russia  was  made  up 
of  a  number  of  independent  principalities,  over  whicli  the  Princi- 
pality of  Kiev,  "  the  mother  of  Russian  cities,"  exercised,  or  rather 
claimed,  the  right  of  overlordship.  From  1238  to  1462  the  Russian 
lands  were  subject  to  the  dominion  of  the  Tatars.  During  the  four- 
teenth century,  while  yet  under  Tatar  rule,  the  Principality  of  Mos- 
cow gained  the  ascendancy  over  the  other  Russian  states.  The 
absorption  of  the  latter  and  the  creation  of  the  autocratic  Tzardom 
of  Muscovy  was  the  work  of  Ivan  III.  (1462-1505),  his  son  Basil 
(1605-1633),  and  his  grandson  Ivan  IV.  the  Terrible  (1533-1584).] 


30  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

zaria,  or  the  Crimea,  but  also,  following  in  the  wake  of  the 
Greeks,  from  the  Empire  of  Byzantium,  developing  the  com- 
mercial life  of  the  principality  and  connecting  that  primitive 
region  with  the  centers  of  human  civilization.  The  popular 
legend,  which  is  reproduced  in  the  ancient  Eussian  chronicles, 
and  is  no  doubt  tinged  with  the  spirit  of  Byzantine  clericalism, 
makes  the  Jews  participate  in  the  competition  of  religions  for 
the  conquest  of  pagan  Russia,  in  that  famous  spectacle  of  the 
"  test  of  creeds  "  which  took  place  in  986  in  the  presence  of 
Vladimir,  Prince  of  Kiev, 

The  church  legend  narrates  that  when  Vladimir  had  announced 
his  intention  to  abandon  idolatry,  he  received  a  visit  from  Kha- 
zarian  Jews,  who  said  to  him:  "  We  liave  heard  that  the  Christiana 
have  come  to  preach  their  faith,  but  they  believe  in  one  who  was 
crucified  by  us,  while  we  believe  in  the  one  God,  the  God  of  Abra- 
ham, Isaac,  and  Jacob."  Vladimir  asked  the  Jews:  "What  does 
your  law  prescribe?"  To  this  they  replied:  "To  be  circumcised, 
not  to  eat  pork  or  game,  and  to  keep  the  Sabbath."  "  Where  is  your 
country?  "  inquired  the  Prince.  "  In  Jerusalem,"  replied  the  Jews, 
"But  do  you  live  there?"  he  asked.  "We  do  not,"  answered  the 
Jews,  "  for  the  Lord  was  wroth  with  our  forefathers,  and  scattered 
us  all  over  the  earth  for  our  sins,  while  our  land  was  given  away  to 
the  Christians."  Thereupon  Vladimir  exclaimed:  "How  then 
dare  you  teach  others  when  you  yourselves  are  rejected  by  God 
and  scattered?  If  God  loved  you,  you  would  not  be  dispersed  in 
strange  lands.  Do  you  intend  to  inflict  the  same  misfortune 
on  me?" 

This  popular  tradition  is  historically  true  only  insofar  as  it 
reflects  the  ecclesiastic  and  political  struggle  of  the  time.  It  was 
in  Taurian  Chersonesus,  the  ancient  scene  of  Jewish  and 
Byzantine  rivalry,  that  the  threads  were  woven  which  subse- 
quently tied  pagan  Eussia  to  Byzantium.  The  attempts  of 
the  Taurian,  or  Khazarian,  Jews  to  assert  their  claims  in  the 


THE  DIASPORA  IN  EASTERN  EUROPE  31 

religious  competition  at  Kiev  were  bound  to  prove  a  failure. 
For  community  of  political  and  economic  interests  was  forcing 
Byzantium  and  the  Principality'  of  Kiev  into  an  alliance,  which 
was  finally  consummated  at  the  end  of  the  tenth  century  by 
the  conversion  of  Russia  to  Greek  Orthodox  Christianity.  The 
alliance  resulted  in  the  downfall  of  their  common  enemy,  the 
Khazars,  who,  for  several  centuries,  had  been  struggling  with 
the  Byzantines  on  the  shores  of  the  Black  Sea,  and  at  the 
same  time  had  lield  in  subjection  the  tribes  of  the  Slavs.  In 
consequence  of  the  defeat  of  the  Khazars,  a  part  of  the  Jewish- 
Khazarian  center  in  Tauris  was  transferred  to  the  Principality 
of  Kiev. 

The  coincidence  of  the  settlement  of  Jews  in  Kiev  with 
the  conversion  of  Eussia  to  the  Greek  Orthodox  faith  fore- 
shadows the  course  of  history.  The  very  earliest  phase  of  Rus- 
sian cultural  life  is  stamped  by  the  Byzantine  spirit  of  intol- 
erance in  relation  to  the  Jews.  The  Abbot  of  the  famous 
Peehera  monastery,  Theodosius  (1057-1074),  taught  the  Kio- 
vians  to  live  at  peace  with  friends  and  foes,  "  but  with  their 
own  foes,  not  with  those  of  God."  God's  foes,  however,  are 
Jews  and  heretics,  "  who  hold  a  crooked  religion."  In  the 
Life  of  Theodosius  wTitten  by  the  celebrated  Russian  chronic- 
ler Nestor  we  are  told  that  this  austere  monk  was  in  the  habit 
of  getting  up  in  the  night  and  secretly  going  to  the  Jews  to 
argue  with  them  about  Christ.  He  would  scold  them,  brand- 
ing them  as  wicked  and  godless,  and  would  purposely  irritate 
them,  in  the  hope  of  being  killed  "  for  the  profession  of 
Christ "  and  thus  attaining  to  martyrdom,  though  it  would 
seem  that  the  Jews  consistently  refused  to  grant  him  this 
pleasure.  Hatred  against  Jews  and  Judaism  was  equally 
preached  by  Theodosius'  contemporaries  Illarion  and  John, 
Metropolitans  of  Kiev  (about  1050  and  1080). 
8 


32  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

This  propaganda  of  religious  intolerance  did  not  remain 
without  effect.  In  the  beginning  of  the  twelfth  century  the 
Jewish  colony  of  Kiev  experienced  the  first  pogrom.  Under 
Grand  Duke  Svyatopolk  II.  (1093-1113)  the  Jews  of  Kiev 
had  enjoyed  complete  liberty  of  trade  and  commerce.  The 
Prince  had  protected  his  Jewish  subjects,  and  had  intrusted 
some  of  them  with  the  collection  of  the  customs  and  other  ducal 
imposts.  But  during  the  interregnum  following  the  death  of 
Svyatopolk  (1113)  they  had  to  pay  dearly  for  the  liberty 
enjoyed  by  them.  The  Kiovians  had  offered  the  throne  of 
the  principality  to  Vladimir  Monomakh,  but  he  was  slow  about 
entering  the  capital.  As  a  result,  riots  broke  out.  The  Kiev 
mob  revolted,  and,  after  looting  the  residences  of  several  high 
officials,  threw  itself  upon  the  Jews  and  plundered  their  prop- 
erty. The  well-intentioned  among  the  inhabitants  of  Kiev 
dispatched  a  second  delegation  to  Monomakh,  warning  him 
that,  if  he  tarried  longer,  the  riots  would  assume  formidable 
dimensions.  Thereupon  Monomakh  arrived  and  restored  order 
in  the  capital. 

Nevertheless  the  Jews  continued  to  reside  in  Kiev.  In  1124 
they  suffered  severely  from  a  fire  which  destroyed  a  considerable 
portion  of  the  city.  In  the  chronicles  of  that  period  (1146- 
1151)  mention  is  frequently  made  of  the  "Jewish  gate"  in 
Kiev.  Jewish  merchants  were  attracted  towards  this  city,  a 
growing  commercial  center  serving  as  the  connecting  link 
between  Western  Europe  on  the  one  hand  and  the  Black  Sea 
provinces  and  the  Asiatic  continent  on  the  other.  Keference 
to  Kiev  is  made  by  the  Jewish  travelers  of  the  time,  Benjamin 
of  Tudela  and  Pethahiah  of  Ratisbon  (1160-1190).  The 
former  speaks  of  "  the  kingdom  of  Eussia,  stretching  from  the 
gates  of  Prague  to  the  gates  of  Kiev,  a  large  city  on  the  border 


THE  DIASPORA  IN  EASTERN  EUROPE  33 

of  the  kingdom,"  The  latter,  Pethahiah,  informs  us  that,  on 
leaving  his  home  in  Katisbon,  he  proceeded  to  Prague,  the 
capital  of  Bohemia ;  from  Prague  he  went  to  Poland,  and  from 
there  "  to  Kiev,  which  is  in  Russia,"  whereupon  he  traveled 
for  six  days,  until  he  reached  the  Dnieper,  and,  having  crossed 
it,  finally  arrived  on  the  coast  of  the  Black  Sea  and  in  the 
Crimea. 

After  the  Crusades,  when  considerable  settlements  of  Jew- 
ish immigrants  from  Germany  began  to  spring  up  in  Poland, 
part  of  these  immigrants  found  their  way  into  the  Principality 
of  Kiev.  The  German  rabbis  of  the  twelfth  century  occa- 
sionally refer  in  their  writings  to  the  journeys  of  German  Jews 
traveling  with  their  merchandise  to  "  Russ  "  and  "  Sclavonia  " 
{=  Slavonia,  Slav  countries).  The  Jews  of  Russia,  who  lacked 
rabbinical  authorities  of  their  own,  addressed  their  inquiries  to 
the  Jewish  scholars  of  Germany,  or  sent  their  studious  young 
men  to  the  West  to  obtain  a  Talmudic  education.  Hebrew 
sources  of  the  twelfth  century  make  mention  of  the  names  of 
Rabbi  Isaac  of  Chernigov  and  Rabbi  Moses  of  Kiev,  The 
latter  is  quoted  as  having  addressed  an  inquiry  to  the  well- 
known  Gaon  of  Bagdad,  Samuel  ben  Ali. 

The  conquest  of  the  Crimea  by  the  Tatar  khans  in  the 
thirteenth  century  and  the  gradual  extension  of  their  sover- 
eignty to  the  Principalities  of  Kiev  and  Moscow  brought  the 
old  center  of  Judaism  in  the  Tauris  region  in  close  contact 
with  its  offshoots  in  various  parts  of  Russia.  Kiev  enters  into 
regular  commercial  intercourse  with  Kaffa  (Theodosia)  on  the 
Crimean  sea-shore.  Kaffa  becomes  during  that  period  an  inter- 
national emporium,  owing  to  the  Genoese,  who  had  obtained 
from  the  Tatar  khans  concessions  for  Kaffa  and  the  surround- 
ing countrj',  and  had  founded  there  a  commercial  colony  of  the 


31  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

Genoese  Eepublic.  The  Crimean  Peninsula  was  joined  to  the 
world  commerce  of  Italy,  and  merchantmen  were  constantly 
ploughing  the  seas  between  Genoa  and  Kaffa,  passing  through 
the  Byzantine  Dardanelles.  Italians,  Greeks,  Jews,  and  Arme- 
nians flocked  to  Kaffa  and  the  adjacent  localities  on  the  south- 
em  coast  of  the  Crimea.  The  Government  of  the  Genoese 
Eepublic  time  and  again  instructed  its  consuls  who  were 
charged  with  the  administration  of  the  Crimean  colony  to 
observe  the  principles  of  religious  toleration  in  their  attitude 
towards  this  heterogeneous  population.  If  the  testimony  of 
the  traveler  Schiltberger,  who  visited  the  Crimea  between 
1394  and  1427,  may  be  relied  upon,  there  were  in  Kaffa  Jews 
"  of  two  kinds,"  evidently  Rabbanites  and  Karaites,  who  had 
two  synagogues  and  four  thousand  houses,  an  imposing  popula- 
tion to  judge  by  its  numbers. 

The  great  crisis  in  the  history  of  Byzantium — the  capture  of 
Constantinople  by  the  Turks — affected  also  the  Genoese  colony 
in  the  Crimea.  The  Turks  began  to  hamper  the  Genoese  in 
their  navigation  through  the  straits.  In  1455  the  Genoese 
Government  ceded  its  Kaffa  possessions  to  the  Bank  of  St. 
George  in  Genoa.  The  new  administration  set  out  to  restore 
order  in  the  colony  and  establish  normal  relations  between  the 
various  races  inhabiting  it;  but  the  days  of  this  cultural  oasis 
on  the  Black  Sea  were  numbered.  In  1475  Kaffa  was  taken 
by  the  Turks,  and  the  whole  peninsula  fell  under  Turco-Tataric 
dominion. 

Important  Jewish  communities  were  to  be  found  during  that 
period  also  in  the  older  Tataric  possessions  of  the  Crimea.  Two 
Jewish  communities,  one  consisting  of  Rabbanites  and  the 
other  of  Karaites,  flourished,  during  the  thirteenth  century, 
in  the  ancient  capital  of  the  Tatar  khans,  named  Solkhat  (now 


THE  DIASPORA  IN  EASTERN  EUROPE  35 

Eski-Krym).  Beginning  with  1428,  the  old  Karaite  com- 
munity of  Chufut-Kale  ("the  Eock  of  the  Jews"),  situated 
near  the  new  Tatar  capital,  Bakhchi-Sarai,  grows  in  numbers 
and  influence.  The  memory  of  this  community  is  perpetuated 
by  a  huge  number  of  tombstones,  ranging  from  the  thirteenth 
to  the  eighteenth  century.  Crimea,  now  peopled  with  Jews, 
sends  forth  settlers  to  Lithuania,  where,  at  the  end  of  the 
fourteenth  century,  Grand  Duke  Vitovt  *  takes  them  under  his 
protection.  Crimean  colonies  spring  up  in  the  Lithuanian 
towns  of  Troki  and  Lutzk,  which,  as  will  be  seen  later,  are 
granted  extensive  privileges  by  the  ruler  of  the  land. 

The  establishment  of  Turkish  sovereignty  over  the  Crimea 
(1475-1783)  resulted  in  a  closer  commercial  relationship  be- 
tween the  Jewish  center  on  the  Peninsula  and  the  Principality 
of  Moscow,  which  at  that  time  fenced  herself  off  from  the  out- 
side world  by  a  Chinese  wall,  and,  with  few  exceptions,  barred 
from  her  dominions  all  foreigners  and  infidels,  or  "  Basur- 
mans." '  In  the  second  half  of  the  fifteenth  century  the  Grand 
Duke  of  Muscovy,  Ivan  III.,  was  constrained  to  seek  the  help 
of  sevei-al  Crimean  Jews  in  his  diplomatic  negotiations  with 
the  Khan  of  the  Crimea,  Mengli-Guiray.  One  of  the  agents  of 
the  Muscovite  Prince  was  an  influential  Jew  of  Kaffa,  by  the 
name  of  Khoza  Kokos,  who  was  instrumental  in  bringing  about 
a  military  alliance  between  the  Grand  Duke  and  the  Khan 
(1472-1475).  It  is  curious  to  note  that  Kokos  wrote  his 
letters  to  Ivan  III.  in  Hebrew,  so  that  the  Muscovite  ruler, 
who  evidently  could  find  no  one  in  Moscow  familiar  with  that 
language,  had  to  request  his  agent  to  correspond  with  him  in 

[^  Also  written  Witowt.    Another  form  of  the  name  is  Witold.] 
['  Basurman,  or  Busurman,  mutilated  from  Mussulman,  is  an 
archaic  and  contemptuous  designation  for  Mohammedans  and  In 
general  for  all  who  do  not  profess  the  Greek  Orthodox  faith.] 


36  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

Eussiau  or  "  in  the  Basurman  language  "  (Tataric  or  per- 
haps Italian) .  Another  agent  of  Ivan  III.,  Zechariah  Guizolfi, 
was  an  Italian  Jew,  who  had  previously  occupied  an  important 
post  in  the  Genoese  colony  in  the  Crimea,  and  was  the  owner  of 
the  Taman  Peninsula  ("  the  Prince  of  Taraan  ") .  He  stood  in 
close  relations  to  Khan  Mengli-Guiray,  and  in  this  capacity 
carried  on  a  diplomatic  correspondence  with  the  Prince  of 
Muscovy  (1484-1500).  Later  on  Zechariah  was  on  the  point 
of  taking  up  his  abode  in  Moscow  in  order  to  participate  more 
directly  in  the  foreign  affairs  of  Russia,  but  circumstances 
interfered  with  the  execution  of  the  plan. 

During  the  same  period  there  arose  in  Moscow,  as  the  result 
of  a  secret  propaganda  of  Judaism,  a  religious  movement 
known  under  the  name  of  the  "  Judaizing  heresy."  According 
to  the  Russian  chroniclers,  tlie  originator  of  this  heresy  was  the 
learned  Jew  Skharia  (Zechariah),  who  had  emigrated  with  a 
number  of  coreligionists  from  Kiev  to  the  ancient  Russian  city 
of  Novgorod.  Profiting  by  the  religious  unrest  rife  at  that 
time  in  Novgorod — a  new  sect,  called  the  Strigolniki,*  had 
arisen  in  the  city,  which  abrogated  the  Church  rites,  and  went 
to  the  point  of  denying  the  divinity  of  Christ — Zechariah  got 
in  touch  with  several  representatives  of  the  Orthodox  clergy, 
and  succeeded  in  converting  them  to  Judaism.  The  leaders  of 
the  Novgorod  apostates,  the  priests  Denis  and  Alexius,  went  to 
Moscow  in  1480,  and  converted  a  number  of  the  Greek  Ortho- 
dox there,  some  of  the  new  converts  even  submitting  to  the  rite 
of  circumcision.  The  "  Judaizing  heresy  '*  was  soon  in- 
trenched among  the  nobility  of  Moscow  and  in  the  court  circles. 
Among  its  s}Tnpathizers  was  the  daughter-in-law  of  the  Grand 
Duke,  Helena. 

V  The  name  is  derived  from  their  founder,  Carp  Strigolnik.] 


THE  DIASPORA  IN  EASTERN  EUROPE  37 

The  Archbishop  of  Novgorod,  Hennadius,  called  attention 
to  the  dangerous  propagation  of  the  "  Judaizing  heresy,"  and 
made  valiant  efforts  to  uproot  it  in  his  diocese.  In  Moscow  the 
fight  against  the  new  doctrine  proved  extremely  difficult.  But 
here  too  it  was  finally  checked,  owing  to  the  vigorous  endeavors 
of  Hennadius  and  other  Orthodox  zealots.  By  the  decision  of 
the  Church  Council  of  1504,  supported  by  the  orders  of  Ivan 
III.,  the  principal  apostates  were  burned  at  the  stake,  while 
the  others  were  cast  into  prison  or  exiled  to  monasteries.  As 
a  result,  the  "  Judaizing  heresy  "  ceased  to  exist.* 

Another  tragic  occurrence  in  the  same  period  affords  a  lurid 
illustration  of  Muscovite  superstition.  At  the  court  of  Grand 
Duke  Ivan  III.  the  post  of  physician  was  occupied  by  a  learned 
Jew,  Master  Leon,  who  had  been  invited  from  Venice.  In  the 
beginning  of  1490  the  eldest  son  of  the  Grand  Duke  fell  dan- 
gerously ill.  Master  Leon  tried  to  cure  his  patient  by  means 
of  hot  cupping-glasses  and  various  medicaments.  Questioned 
by  the  Grand  Duke  whether  his  son  had  any  chances  of  recov- 
ery, the  physician,  in  an  unguarded  moment,  replied :  "  I  shall 
not  fail  to  cure  your  son ;  otherwise  you  may  put  me  to  death  !  " 
On  March  15,  1490,  the  patient  died.  When  the  forty  days  of 
mourning  were  over,  Ivan  III.  gave  orders  to  cut  off  the  head 
of  the  Jewish  physician  for  his  failure  to  effect  a  cure.  The 
execution  was  carried  out  publicly,  on  one  of  the  squares  of 
Moscow. 

In  the  eyes  of  the  Muscovites  both  the  learned  theologian 
Skharia  and  the  physician  Leon  were  adepts  of  the  "black 
art,"  or  magicians.  The  "  Judaizing  heresy  "  instilled  in  them 
a  superstitious  fear  of  the  Jews,  of  whom  they  only  knew 

[*  For  later  "  Judaizing  "  tendencies  in  Russia,  see  pp.  251  et  seq. 
and  401  et  seq.] 


38  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  PbLAND 

by  hearsay.  As  loug  as  such  ideas  and  manners  prevailed, 
the  Jews  could  scarcely  expect  to  be  hospitably  received  in  the 
land  of  the  Muscovites.  No  wonder  then  that  for  a  long  time 
the  Jews  appear  there,  not  in  the  capacity  of  permanent  resi- 
dents, but  as  itinerant  merchants,  who  in  a  few  cases — and 
with  extreme  reluctance  at  that — are  accorded  the  right  of 
temporary  sojourn  in  "  holy  Russia." 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  JEWISH  COLONIES  IN  POLAND  AND 
LITHUANIA 

I.  The  Immigration  from  Western  Europe  during  the 
Period  of  the  Crusades 

Wliile  the  Jewish  colonies  on  the  shores  of  the  Black  Sea 
and  on  the  territory  of  modern  South  Eussia  were  due  to  im- 
migration from  the  lands  of  the  Greco-Byzantine  and  Moham- 
medan East,  the  Jewish  settlements  in  Poland  were  founded 
by  new-comers  from  Western  Europe,  from  the  lands  of 
German  culture  and  "  the  Latin  faith."  *  This  division  was  a 
natural  product  of  the  historic  development  that  made  Sla- 
vonian Eussia  gravitate  towards  the  East,  and  Slavonian 
Poland  turn  towards  the  West.  Even  prior  to  her  joining 
the  ecclesiastic  organization  of  the  West,  Poland  had  at- 
tained to  prominence  as  a  commercial  colony  of  Germany.  The 
Slav  lands  on  the  banks  of  the  Varta  and  Vistula,  being  near- 
est to  Western  Europe,  were  bound  to  attract  the  Jews,  at  a  very 
early  period,  in  their  capacity  as  international  traders.  There 
is  reason  to  believe  that,  as  far  back  as  the  ninth  century,  Jews 
living  in  the  German  provinces  of  Charlemagne's  Empire  car- 
ried on  commerce  with  the  neighboring  Slav  countries,  and 
visited  Poland  with  their  merchandise.  These  ephemeral  visits 
frequently  led  to  tlieir  permanent  settlement  in  those  strange 
lands. 

*  It  need  scarcely  be  pointed  out  that,  In  speaking  of  the  Jewish 
immigration  into  Poland,  we  have  in  mind  the  predominating  ele- 
ment, which  came  from  the  West.  It  is  quite  possible  that  there 
was  an  admixture  of  settlers  from  the  Khazar  kingdom,  from  the 
Crimea,  and  from  the  Orient  in  general,  who  were  afterwards 
merged  with  the  western  element. 


40  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

Information  concerning  the  Jews  of  pre-Christian  Poland 
has  come  down  to  us  in  the  shape  of  hazy  legends.  One  of 
these  legends  narrates  that,  after  the  death  of  Prince  Popiel, 
about  the  middle  of  the  ninth  century,  the  Poles  assembled  in 
Krushvitza,  their  ancient  capital,  to  choose  a  successor  to  the 
dead  sovereign.  After  prolonged  disputes  concerning  the 
person  to  be  elected,  it  was  finally  agreed  that  the  first  man 
found  entering  the  town  the  following  morning  should  be 
chosen  as  the  ruler.  It  so  happened  that  on  the  following 
morning  the  first  to  enter  the  town  was  the  Jew  Abraham 
Prokhovnik.'  He  was  seized  and  proclaimed  prince,  but  he 
declined  the  honor,  urging  that  it  be  accorded  to  a  wise  Pole 
by  the  name  of  Piast,  who  thus  became  the  progenitor  of  the 
Piast  dynasty. 

Another  legend  has  it  that  at  the  end  of  the  ninth  century 
a  Jewish  delegation  from  Germany  waited  upon  the  Polish 
Prince  Leshek,  to  plead  for  the  admission  of  Jews  into  Poland. 
Leshek  subjected  the  delegates  to  a  protracted  cross-examina- 
tion concerning  the  principles  of  the  Jewish  religion  and  Jew- 
ish morality,  and  finally  complied  with  their  request.  There- 
upon large  numbers  of  German  Jews  began  to  arrive  in  Poland, 
and,  in  905,  they  obtained  special  written  privileges,  which, 
according  to  the  same  legend,  were  subsequently  lost.  These 
obscure  tales,  though  lacking  all  foundation  in  fact,  and 
undoubtedly  invented  in  much  later  times,  contain  a  grain 
of  historic  truth,  in  that  they  indicate  the  existence  of  Jewish 
settlements  in  pagan  Poland,  and  point  to  their  German  origin. 

The  propagation  of  Latin  Christianity  in  Poland  (beginning 
with  966),  which  placed  the  country  under  the  control  not  only 

*  The  word  signifies  "  the  powder  merchant  " — five  hundred  years 
before  the  invention  of  powder! 


COLONIES  IN  POLAND  AND  LITHUANIA  41 

of  the  emperors  of  Germany  but  also  of  its  bishops  as  the 
representatives  of  the  Roman  See,  was  bound  to  stimulate  the 
intercourse  between  the  two  countries  and  result  in  an  in- 
creased influx  of  Jewish  merchants  and  settlers.  However, 
this  slow  commercial  colonization  would  scarcely  have  assumed 
any  considerable  dimensions,  had  not  exceptional  circum- 
stances forced  a  large  number  of  Jews  to  seek  refuge  in  Poland. 
A  compulsory  immigration  of  this  kind  began  after  the  first 
Crusade,  in  1096.  It  started  in  near-by  Slavonian  Bohemia, 
where  the  Crusaders  attacked  the  Jews  of  Prague,  and  con- 
verted them  forcibly  to  Christianity.  The  Bohemian  Jews 
made  up  their  minds  to  flee  to  neighboring  Poland,  which 
had  not  yet  been  reached  by  the  devastating  Christian  hosts. 
The  Bohemian  Prince  Vratislav  robbed  the  immigrants  on  the 
way,  but  even  this  could  not  prevent  many  of  them  from  leav- 
ing the  country  in  which  both  people  and  Government  were  hos- 
tile to  them  (1098). 

Beginning  with  this  period  there  was  a  steady  flow  of  Jews 
from  the  Rhine  and  Danube  provinces  into  Poland,  increasing 
in  volume  as  a  result  of  the  Crusades  (1146-1147  and  1196) 
and  the  severe  Jewish  persecutions  in  Germany.  The  accentu- 
ation of  Jewish  suffering  in  Germany  during  the  twelfth  and 
thirteenth  centuries,  when  the  royal  power  was  incapable  of 
shielding  its  K amm eric ne elite  against  the  fury  of  the  fanatical 
mob  or  the  degrading  canons  of  the  Church,  drove  vast  num- 
bers of  Jews  into  Poland.  Here  the  refugees  sought  shelter  in 
the  provinces  nearest  to  the  Austro-German  border,  Cracow, 
Posen,  Kalish,  and  Silesia. 

The  first  signs  of  discord  between  Christians  and  Jews  are 
to  be  noticed  in  the  second  half  of  the  tweKth  century,  when 
Poland   fell   asunder   into   several   feudal    Principalities,   or 


42  THE  JEWS   IN  RUSSIA  AND   POLAND 

"  Appanages."  *  The  Prince  of  Great  Poland,  Mechislav  III., 
the  Old,  in  his  desire  to  enforce  law  and  order,  found  it  neces- 
sary to  issue,  in  1173,  strict  injunctions  forbidding  all  kinds  of 
violence  against  the  Jews  and  in  particular  the  attacks  upon 
them  by  Christian  "  scholars,"  the  pupils  of  the  ecclesiastic 
and  monastic  colleges.  Those  found  guilty  of  such  attacks  were 
to  be  heavily  fined.  On  the  whole,  the  rulers  were  willing  to 
take  the  Jews  under  their  protection.  Under  Mechislav  the 
Old,  Casimir  the  Just,  and  Leshek  the  Whit«,  who  reigned 
at  the  end  of  the  twelfth  and  the  beginning  of  the  thirteenth 
century,  the  Jews  farmed  and  administered  the  mint  of  Great 
and  of  Little  Poland.  On  the  coins  struck  by  these  Jews,  many 
of  which  have  come  down  to  us,  the  names  of  the  ruling  princes 
are  marked  in  Hebrew  characters/  At  the  very  beginning  of 
the  thirteenth  century  (1203-1207)  we  hear  of  Jews  owning 
lands  and  estates  in  Polish  Silesia. 

Such  was  the  rise  and  growth  of  the  Jewish  colonies  in 
Poland.  As  time  went  on,  the  commercial  intercourse  between 
these  colonies  and  the  West  led  to  a  spiritual  relationship  be- 
tween them  and  the  centers  of  Jewish  culture  in  Europe.    A 

['  The  most  important  of  these  were:  Great  Poland,  in  the  north- 
west, with  the  leading  cities  of  Posen  and  Kalish;  Little  Poland,  in 
the  southwest,  with  Cracow  and  Lublin;  and  Red  Russia,  in  the 
south,  on  which  see  p.  53,  n.  2.  In  1319  Great  Poland  and  Little 
Poland  were  united  by  Vladislav  Lokietek  (see  p.  50),  who  assumed 
the  royal  title.  His  son  Casimir  the  Great  annexed  Red  Russia. 
Thenceforward  Great  Poland,  Little  Poland,  and  Red  Russia  formed 
part  of  the  Polish  Kingdom,  with  Cracow  as  capital,  though  they 
were  administered  as  separate  Provinces.  On  the  Principality  of 
Mazovia,  see  p.  85,  n.  1.] 

^  Some  coins  bear  the  inscription  'pD^^i)  ^"lp  Npt^O,  "  Meshko 
(=  Mechislav)  Kr61  Polski,"  "  Meshko,  king  of  Poland,"  or  nD")3 
KpK'D.  "  Benediction  [on]  Meshko."  Other  coins  give  the  names 
of  the  Jewish  minters,  such  as  Abraham,  son  of  Isaac  Nagid, 
Joseph  Kalish,  etc. 


COLONIES  IN  POLAND  AND  LITHUANIA  43 

contemporary  Bohemian  scholar  of  the  Tosafist  school,  Rabbi 
Eliezer,  informs  us  that  the  Jews  of  Poland,  Russia,  and  Hun- 
gary, having  no  scholars  of  their  own,  invited  their  spiritual 
leaders  from  other  countries,  probably  from  Germany.  These 
foreign  scholars  occupied  the  posts  of  rabbis,  cantors,  and 
school  teachers  among  them,  and  were  remunerated  for  their 
services.  At  the  same  time  studious  Polish  Jews  were  in  the 
habit  of  going  abroad  to  perfect  themselves  in  the  sciences,  as 
was  also  the  case  with  the  Jewish  settlers  in  Russia.  From  the 
German  mother  country  the  Polish  Jews  received  not  only 
their  language,  a  German  dialect,  which  subsequently  devel- 
oped into  the  Polish- Jewish  jargon,  or  Yiddish,  but  also  their 
religious  culture  and  their  communal  organization.  All  this, 
however,  was  in  an  embryonic  stage,  and  only  gradually  un- 
folded in  the  following  period, 

2.  The  Charter  of  Prince  Boleslav  and  the  Canons  of 
THE  Chuech 

The  importance  of  Jewish  immigration  for  the  economic 
development  of  Poland  was  first  realized  by  the  feudal 
Polish  princes  of  the  thirteenth  century.  Prompted  by  the 
desire  of  cultivating  industrial  activities  in  their  dominions, 
these  princes  gladly  welcomed  settlers  from  Germany,  with- 
out making  a  distinction  between  Jews  and  Christians.  Nor 
did  the  native  Slav  population  suffer  inconvenience  from 
this  immigration,  which,  on  the  contrary,  brought  the  first 
elements  of  a  higher  civilization  into  the  country.  In  a  land 
which  had  not  yet  emerged  from  the  primitive  stage  of  agri- 
cultural economy,  and  possessed  only  two  fixed  classes,  owners 
of  the  soil  and  tillers  of  the  soil,  the  Jews  naturally  repre- 
sented the  "  third  estate,"  acting  as  the  pioneers  of  trade  and 


44  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

finance.  They  put  their  capital  in  circulation,  by  launch- 
ing industrial  undertakings,  by  leasing  estates,  and  farming 
various  articles  of  revenue  (salt  mines,  customs  duties),  and 
by  engaging  in  money-lending.  The  native  population,  which 
medieval  culture,  with  its  religious  intolerance  and  class  preju- 
dice, had  not  yet  had  time  to  "  train "  properly,  lived  at 
peace  with  the  Jews. 

The  influence  of  the  Church,  on  the  one  hand,  and  that  of 
adjacent  Christian  Germany,  on  the  other,  slowly  undermined 
this  patriarchal  order  of  things.  The  popes  dispatched  their 
legates  to  Poland  to  see  to  it  that  the  well-known  canonical 
statutes,  which  were  permeated  with  implacable  hatred  against 
the  adherents  of  Judaism,  did  not  remain  a  dead  letter,  but 
were  carried  out  in  practice.  During  the  same  period  the 
Polish  princes,  in  particular  Boleslav  the  Shy  (1247-1279), 
endeavored  to  draw  German  emigrants  into  Poland,  by  be- 
stowing upon  them  considerable  privileges  and  the  right  of 
self-government,  the  so-called  "  IMagdeburg  Law,"  or  ius  teu- 
tonicum.^  The  Germans,  while  settling  in  the  Polish  cities  as 
merchants  and  tradesmen,'  and  thus  becoming  the  competitors 
of  the  Jews,  imported  from  their  native  land  into  the  new 
environment  the  spirit  of  economic  class  strife  and  denomina- 
tional antagonism.    The  best  of  the  Polish  rulers  were  forced 

V  Das  Magdeburger  Recht,  a  collection  of  laws  based  on  the 
famous  Sachsenspiegel,  which  was  composed  early  in  the  thirteenth 
century  in  Saxony.  Owing  to  the  fame  of  the  court  of  aldermen 
(Schoppenstuhl)  at  Magdeburg,  the  Magdeburg  Law  was  adopted 
in  many  parts  of  Germany,  Bohemia,  Hungary,  and  particularly  of 
Poland.  One  of  its  main  provisions  was  the  administrative  and 
judicial  independence  of  the  municipalities.] 

['  They  were  organized  in  mercantile  guilds  and  trade-unions 
and  formed  the  estate  of  burghers,  called  in  Polish  mieszczanie — 
pronounced  myeshchanye — and  in  Latin  oppidani,  "  town-dwel- 
lers," thus  standing  midway  between  the  nobility,  or  Shlakhta 
(see  p.  58,  n.  1),  and  the  serfs,  or  khlops.] 


COLONIES  IN  POLAND  AND  LITHUANIA  45 

to  combat  the  effects  of  this  foreign  importation,  and  found  it 
necessary  to  encourage  the  economic  activity  of  the  Jews  for 
the  benefit  of  the  country  and  to  shield  them  against  the  insults 
of  their  Christian  neighbors. 

Boleslav  of  Kalish,  surnamed  the  Pious,  who  ruled  over  the 
territory  of  Great  Poland,  was  a  prince  of  this  kind.  In  1264, 
with  the  consent  of  the  highest  dignitaries  of  the  state,  he  pro- 
mulgated a  statute  defining  the  rights  of  the  Jews  within  his 
dominions.  This  charter  of  privileges,  closely  resembling  in 
its  contents  the  statutes  of  Frederick  of  Austria  and  Ottocar  of 
Bohemia,  became  the  corner-stone  of  Polish-Jewish  legislation. 
Boleslav^s  charter  consists  of  thirty-seven  paragraphs,  and 
begins  with  these  words  : 

The  deeds  of  man,  when  unconfirmed  by  the  voice  of  witnesses 
or  by  written  documents,  are  bound  to  pass  away  swiftly  and  dis- 
appear from  memory.  Because  of  this,  we,  Boleslav,  Prince  of 
Great  Poland,  make  it  known  to  our  contemporaries  as  well  as  to 
our  descendants,  to  whom  this  writing  shall  come  down,  that  the 
Jews,  who  have  established  themselves  over  the  length  and  breadth 
of  our  country,  have  received  from  us  the  following  statutes  and 
privileges. 

The  first  clause  of  the  charter  prescribes  that,  when  civil  and 
criminal  cases  are  tried  in  court,  the  testimony  of  a  Christian 
against  a  Jew  is  to  be  accepted  only  if  confirmed  by  the  depo- 
sition of  a  Jewish  witness.  The  following  clauses  (§§2-7) 
determine  the  process  of  law  in  litigation  between  Christians 
and  Jews,  involving  primarily  pawnbroking;  the  rules  pre- 
scribed there  protect  equally  the  interests  of  the  Jewish  cred- 
itor and  the  Christian  debtor.  Lawsuits  between  Jew  and  Jew 
do  not  fall  within  the  jurisdiction  of  the  general  municipal 
courts,  but  are  tried  either  by  the  prince  himself  or  by  his  lord 


46  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA   AND  POLAND 

lieutenant,  the  voyevoda/  or  the  special  judge  appointed  by  the 
latter  (§8).  The  Christian  who  has  murdered  or  wounded 
a  Jew  answers  for  his  crime  before  the  princely  court:  in 
the  former  ease  the  culprit  incurs  "  due  punisliment,"  and  his 
property  is  forfeit  to  the  prince;  in  the  latter  case  he  has 
to  satisfy  the  plaintiff,  and  must  in  addition  pay  a  tine  into  the 
princely  exchequer  (§§9-10). 

This  is  followed  by  a  set  of  paragraphs  which  guarantee  to 
the  Jew  the  inviolability  of  his  person  and  property.  They 
forbid  annoying  Jewish  merchants  on  the  road,  exacting  from 
them  higher  customs  duties  than  from  Christians,  demolishing 
Jewish  cemeteries,  and  attacking  synagogues  or  "  schools  " 
(§§12-15).  In  case  of  a  nocturnal  assault  upon  the  home 
of  a  Jew,  the  Christian  neighbors  are  obliged  to  come  to  his 
rescue  as  soon  as  they  hear  his  cries;  those  who  fail  to  respond 
are  subject  to  a  fine  (§36). 

The  rights  and  functions  of  the  "Jewish  judge,"*  who  is 
appointed  to  try  cases  between  Jew  and  Jew,  sitting  "  in  the 
neighborhood  of  the  synagogue  or  in  some  other  place,"  are  set 
forth  elaborately  ( §§16-23 ) .  The  kidnaping  of  Jewish  children 

['  The  word,  spelled  in  Polish  icojewoda,  signifies,  like  the  cor- 
responding German  Herzog,  military  commander.  The  voyevoda 
was  originally  the  leader  of  the  army  in  war  and  the  representa- 
tive of  the  king  in  times  of  peace.  After  the  unification  of  Poland, 
in  1319,  the  voyevodas  became  the  administrators  of  the  various 
Polish  provinces  (or  voyevodstvos)  on  behalf  of  the  king.  Later 
on  their  duties  were  encroached  upon  by  the  starostas  (see  below, 
p.  60,  n.  1).  With  the  growth  of  the  influence  of  the  nobility, 
which  resented  the  authority  of  the  royal  officials,  their  functions 
were  limited  to  the  calling  of  the  militia  in  the  case  cf  war  and 
the  exercise  of  jurisdiction  over  the  Jews  of  their  province.  They 
were  members  of  the  Royal  Council,  and  as  such  wielded  con- 
siderable influence.    Their  Latin  title  was  palatinus.] 

V  Judex  Judaeorum.  He  was  a  Christian  official,  generally  of 
noble  rank.    See  p.  52.] 


COLONIES  IN  POLAND  AND  LITHUANIA  47 

with  the  view  of  baptizing  them  is  severely  punished  (§27). 
The  charter  further  prohibits  charging  the  Jews  with  the  use  of 
Christian  blood  for  ritual  purposes,  in  view  of  the  fact  that 
the  groundlessness  of  such  charges  had  been  demonstrated 
b}'  papal  bulls.  Should  nevertheless  such  charges  be  raised,  they 
must  be  corroborated  by  six  witnesses,  three  Christians  and 
three  Jews.  If  the  charges  are  substantiated,  the  guilty  Jew 
loses  his  life;  otherwise  the  same  fate  overtakes  the  Christian 
informer  (§32).  All  these  legal  safeguards  were,  in  the  words 
of  the  charter,  to  remain  in  force  "  for  all  time." 

The  Polish  lawgiver  was  evidently  anxious  to  secure  for  the 
Jews  such  conditions  of  life  as  might  enable  them  to  benefit  the 
country  by  their  commercial  activity,  while  enjoying  liberty  of 
conscience  and  living  in  harmony  with  the  non-Jewish  popu- 
lation. Boleslav's  enactment  expresses,  not  the  individual  will 
of  the  ruler,  but  the  collective  decision  of  the  highest  dig- 
nitaries and  the  representatives  of  the  estates,  who,  as  is  pointed 
out  in  the  document,  had  been  previously  consulted. 

Thus  the  temporal  powers  of  the  state,  guided  by  the  eco- 
nomic needs  of  the  country,  endeavored  to  establish  Jewish 
life  in  Poland  on  more  or  less  rational  civic  foundations.  The 
ecclesiastic  authorities,  however,  inspired  rather  by  the  cos- 
mopolitan ideals  of  the  Eoman  Church  than  by  love  of  their 
native  land,  strained  all  their  energies  to  detach  the  Jews  from 
the  general  life  of  the  country.  They  segregated  them  from 
the  Christian  population  because  of  their  alleged  injuriousness 
to  the  Catholic  faith,  and  reduced  them  to  the  position  of  a 
despised  caste.  The  well-known  Church  Council  of  Breslau, 
convened  in  1266  by  the  Papal  Legate  Guido,  had  the  special 
mission  of  introducing  in  the  oldest  Polish  diocese,  that  of 
Gnesen,  the  canonical  laws,  including  those  applying  to  the 
4 


48  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

Jews.  The  motives  by  which  this  legislation  was  prompted 
are  frankly  stated  in  the  preamble  to  the  section  of  the  Breslau 
"  constitution  "  which  deals  with  the  Jews : 

In  view  of  the  fact — runs  clause  12 — that  Poland  is  a  new  planta- 
tion on  the  soil  of  Christianity  (quum  adhuc  terra  Polonica  sit  in 
corpore  Christianitatis  nova  plantatio),  there  is  reason  to  fear 
that  her  Christian  population  will  fall  an  easy  prey  to  the  in- 
fluence of  the  superstitions  and  evil  habits  of  the  Jews  living 
among  them,  the  more  so  as  the  Christian  religion  took  root 
in  the  hearts  of  the  faithful  of  these  countries  at  a  later  date 
and  in  a  more  feeble  manner.  For  this  reason  we  most  strictly 
enjoin  that  the  Jews  residing  in  the  diocese  of  Gnesen  shall 
not  live  side  by  side  with  the  Christians,  but  shall  live  apart, 
in  houses  adjoining  each  other  or  connected  with  one  another, 
in  some  section  of  the  city  or  village.  The  section  inhabited  by 
Jews  shall  be  separated  from  the  general  dwelling-place  of  the 
Christians  by  a  hedge,  wall,  or  ditch. 

The  Jews  owning  houses  in  the  Christian  quarter  shall  be 
compelled  to  sell  them  within  the  shortest  term  possible. 

Further  injunctions  prescribe  that  the  Jews  shall  lock  them- 
selves up  in  their  houses  while  church  processions  are  marching 
through  the  streets ;  that  in  each  city  they  shall  possess  no  more 
than  one  synagogue ;  that,  "  in  order  to  be  marked  off  from  the 
Christians,"  they  shall  wear  a  peculiarly  shaped  hat,  with  a 
horn-like  shield  {cornutum  pileum),  and  that  any  Jew  showing 
himself  on  the  street  without  this  headgear  shall  be  subject 
to  punishment,  in  accordance  with  the  custom  of  the  country. 

The  Christians  are  forbidden,  under  penalty  of  excommuni- 
cation, to  invite  Jews  to  a  meal,  or  to  eat  and  drink  with  them, 
or  dance  and  make  merry  with  them  at  weddings  and  other 
celebrations.  The  Christians  are  barred  from  buying  meat 
and  other  eatables  from  Jews,  since  the  sellers  might  treacher- 
ously put  poison  in  them. 


COLONIES  IN  POLAND  AND  LITHUANIA  49 

These  prohibitions  are  followed  by  the  ancient  canonical 
enactments  forbidding  the  Jews  to  keep  Christian  servants, 
nursery-maids,  and  wet-nurses,  and  barring  them  from  collect- 
ing customs  duties  and  exercising  any  other  public  function.  A 
Jew  living  unlawfully  with  a  Christian  woman  is  liable  to  im- 
prisonment and  fine,  while  the  woman  is  subject  to  a  public 
whipping  and  to  banishment  from  the  town  for  all  time. 

The  Church  Coimcil  which  held  its  sessions  in  Buda  (Ofen), 
in  Hungary,  in  1279,  was  attended  by  the  highest  ecclesiastic 
dignitaries  of  Poland.  This  Council  ratified  the  clause  con- 
cerning the  "  Jewish  sign,"  supplementing  it  by  the  follow- 
ing details:  The  Jews  of  both  sexes  shall  be  obliged  to 
wear  a  ring  of  red  cloth  sewed  on  to  their  upper  garment, 
on  the  left  side  of  the  chest.  The  Jew  appearing  on  the 
street  without  this  sign  shall  be  accounted  a  vagrant,  and  no 
Christian  shall  have  the  right  to  do  business  with  him.  A 
similar  sign,  only  of  saffron  color,  is  prescribed  for  "  Saracens 
and  Ishmaelites,"  t.  e.  for  Mohammedans.  The  law  barring 
Jews  from  the  collection  of  customs  and  the  discharge  of  other 
public  fimctions  is  extended  by  the  Synod  of  Buda  to  the 
"  sectarians,"  to  the  Christians  of  the  Greek  Orthodox  per- 
suasion. 

In  this  manner  the  condition  of  the  Jews  of  Poland  in  the 
thirteenth  century  was  determined  by  two  factors  operating 
in  different  directions:  the  temporal  powers,  actuated  by 
economic  considerations,  accorded  the  Jews  the  elementary 
rights  of  citizenship,  while  the  ecclesiastic  powers,  prompted  by 
religious  intolerance,  endeavored  to  exclude  the  Jews  from 
civil  life.  As  long  as  patriarchal  conditions  of  life  pre- 
vailed, and  Catholicism  in  Poland  had  not  yet  assujncd  com- 
plete control  over  the  country,  the  policy  of  the  Church  was 


50  THE  JEWS   IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

powerless  to  inflict  serious  damage  upon  the  Jews.  They 
lived  in  safety,  under  the  protection  of  the  Polish  princes,  and, 
except  for  the  German  immigrants,  managed  to  get  along 
peaceably  with  the  Christian  population.  But  the  clerical 
party  was  looking  out  for  the  future,  taking  assiduous  care  that 
"  the  new  plantation  on  the  soil  of  Christianity  "  should  de- 
velop along  the  lines  of  the  older  plantations,  and  was  scatter- 
ing the  seeds  of  religious  hatred  in  the  patient  expectation  of  a 
plentiful  harvest. 

3.  IJisE  OF  Polish  Jewry  under  Casimir  the  Great 

The  Jewish  emigration  from  Western  Europe  assumed  es- 
pecially large  proportions  in  the  first  part  of  the  fourteenth 
century.  The  butcheries  perpetrated  by  the  hordes  of  Rind- 
fleisch  and  Armleder,  and  the  massacres  accompanying  the 
Black  Death,  forced  a  large  number  of  German  Jews  to  seek 
shelter  in  Poland,  which  was  then  undergoing  the  process  of 
unification  and  rejuvenation.  In  1319,  King  Vladislav* 
Lokietek  '  laid  the  foundation  for  the  political  unity  of  Poland 
by  abolisliing  the  former  feudal  divisions,  and  his  famous  son 
Casimir  the  Great  (1333-1370)  was  indefatigable  in  his  en- 
deavors to  raise  the  level  of  civil  and  economic  life  in  his 
united  realm.  Casimir  the  Great  founded  new  cities  and 
fortified  old  ones,  promoted  commerce  and  industry,  and  pro- 
tected, with  equal  solicitude,  the  interests  of  all  classes,  not 
excluding  those  of  the  peasants.  He  was  styled  the  "  peasant 
king,"  and  the  popular  commendation  of  his  efforts  in  the 
upbuilding  of  the  cities  was  crystallized  in  the  saying  that 

[*  In  Polish,  "Wladyslaw.  The  name  is  also  found  in  the  forms 
Wladislaus  and  Ladislaus.] 

l^I.  e.  "  Span-long,"  so  called  because  of  his  diminutive  stature.] 


COLONIES  IN  POLAND  AND  LITHUANIA  51 

Casimir  the  Great  "found  a  Poland  of  wood  and  left  behind 
him  a  Poland  of  stone." 

A  ruler  of  this  type  could  not  but  welcome  the  useful  indus- 
trial activity  of  the  Jews  with  the  liveliest  satisfaction.  He  was 
anxious  to  bring  them  in  close  contact  with  the  Christian 
population  on  the  common  ground  of  peaceful  labor  and 
mutual  helpfulness.  He  was  equally  quick  to  appreciate  the 
advantages  which  the  none  too  flourishing  royal  exchequer 
might  derive  from  the  experience  of  Jewish  capitalists.  Such 
must  have  been  the  motives  Avhich  actuated  Casimir  when,  in 
the  second  year  of  his  reign  (1344),  he  ratified,  in  Cracow, 
the  charter  which  Boleslav  of  Kalish  had  granted  to  the  Jews  of 
Great  Poland,  and  which  he  now"  extended  in  its  operation  to 
all  the  provinces  of  the  kingdom. 

On  later  occasions  (1346-1370)  Casimir  amplified  the  char- 
ter of  Boleslav  by  adding  new  enactments.  In  view  of  the  hos- 
tility of  the  municipalities  and  the  clergy  towards  the  Jews, 
the  King  found  it  necessary  to  insist  in  particular  on  placing 
Jewish  legal  cases  under  his  own  jurisdiction,  and  taking  them 
out  of  the  hands  of  the  municipal  and  ecclesiastic  authorities. 
The  Jews  were  granted  the  following  privileges:  the  right  of 
free  transit  through  the  whole  country,  of  residing  in  the 
cities,  towns,  and  villages,  of  renting  and  mortgaging  the 
estates  of  the  nobility,  and  lending  money  at  a  fixed  rate  of 
interest,  the  last  pursuit  being  closed  to  Christians  by  virtue 
of  canonical  restrictions,  and  therefore  left  entirely  in  the 
hands  of  the  Jews.  The  Polish  lawgiver  was  equally  solicitous 
about  enforcing  respect  for  the  Jew  as  a  human  being  and 
drawing  him  nearer  to  the  Christian  in  private  life,  in  violent 
contradiction  with  the  tendency  of  the  Church  to  isolate  the 
infidels  from  the  "  flock  of  the  faithful."    "  If  the  Jew,"  runs 


/ 

52  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

one  of  the  clauses  of  Casimir's  charter,  "  enters  the  house  of 
a  Christian,  no  one  has  a  right  to  cause  him  any  injury  or  un- 
pleasantness. Every  Jew  is  allowed  to  visit  the  municipal 
baths  in  safety,  in  the  same  way  as  the  Christians,*  and  pay 
the  same  fee  as  the  Christians/' 

Casimir  was  equally  interested  in  ordering  the  inner  life  of 
the  Jews.  The  "  Jewish  judge,"  a  Christian  official  appointed 
by  the  king  to  try  Jewish  cases,  was  enjoined  to  dispense  jus- 
tice in  the  synagogue  or  some  other  place,  in  accordance  with 
the  wishes  of  the  representatives  of  the  Jewish  community.  The 
role  of  process-server  was  assigned  to  the  "  schoolman,"  i.  e. 
the  synagogue  beadle.  This  was  the  germ  of  the  future  system 
of  Kahal  autonomy. 

It  seems  that  in  the  fateful  year  of  the  Black  Death  (1348- 
1349 )  the  Polish  Jews  too  were  in  great  danger.  On  the  wings 
of  the  plague,  which  penetrated  from  Germany  to  Poland, 
came  the  hideous  rumor  charging  the  Jews  with  having 
poisoned  the  wells.  If  we  are  to  trust  the  testimony  of  an 
Italian  chronicler,  Matteo  Villani,  some  ten  thousand  Jews 
in  the  Polish  cities  bordering  on  Germany  met  their  fate  in 
1348  at  the  hands  of  Christian  mobs,  even  the  King  being 
powerless  to  shield  the  unfortunates  against  the  fury  of  the 
people.  A  vague  account  in  an  old  Polish  chronicle  relates 
that  in  the  year  1349  the  Jews  were  exterminated  "  in  nearly 
the  whole  of  Poland."  It  is  possible  that  attacks  on  the  Jews 
took  place  in  the  border  towns,  but,  judging  by  the  fact  that 
the  Jewish  chroniclers,  in  describing  the  ravages  of  the  Black 
Death,  make  no  mention  of  Poland,  these  attacks  cannot  have 
been  extensive.  Be  this  as  it  may,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that, 
threatened  with  massacres  in  Germany,  large  numbers  of  Jews 

*  A  privilege  denied  to  them  by  the  canons  of  the  Church. 


COLONIES  IN  POLAND  AND  LITHUANIA  53 

fled  to  the  neighboring  towns  of  Poland,  and  subsequently 
settled  there. 

It  may  be  mentioned  in  this  connection  that  from  about  the 
same  time  dates  the  origin  of  the  Jewish  community  of  Lvov 
(Lemberg)/  the  capital  of  Eed  Russia,  or  Galicia,  which  had 
been  added  to  his  dominions  by  Casimir  the  Great.'  In  1356 
Casimir,  in  granting  the  Magdeburg  LaAv  to  the  city  of  Lem- 
berg,  bestowed  upon  the  local  Jews  the  right  "  of  being  judged 
according  to  their  own  laws,  i.  e.  autonomy  in  their  communal 
affairs,  a  privilege  accorded  at  the  same  time  to  the  Rutheni- 
ans,  Armenians,  and  Tatars. 

Casimir  the  Great's  attitude  towards  the  Jevs  was  thus  a 
part  of  his  general  policy  with  reference  to  foreign  settlers, 
whom  he  believed  to  be  useful  for  the  development  of  the 
country.  This,  however,  did  not  prevent  certain  evil-minded 
persons,  both  then  and  in  later  ages,  from  seeing  in  these  acts 
of  rational  statesmanship  the  manifestation  of  the  King's  per- 
sonal predilections  and  attachments.  Rumor  had  it  that  Casi- 
mir was  favorably  disposed  towards  the  Jews  because  of  his  in- 
fatuation with  the  beautiful  Jewess  Estherka.  This  Jewish 
belle,  the  daughter  of  a  tailor,  is  supposed  to  have  captured  the 
heart  of  the  King  so  completely  that  in  1356  he  abandoned  a 
former  favorite  for  her  sake.  Estherka  lived  in  the  royal  palace 
of  Lobzovo,  near  Cracow.    She  bore  the  King  two  daughters, 

[*  Lvov,  written  in  Polish  Lwow,  is  used  by  the  Poles  and  Rus- 
sians; Lemberg  is  used  by  the  Germans.] 

[*  Before  Casimir  the  Great  Red  Russia  formed  an  independent 
Principality  (see  p.  42,  n.  1).  The  identity  of  Red  Russia  with 
Galicia  has  been  assumed  in  the  text  for  the  sake  of  convenience. 
In  reality  Red  Russia  corresponds  to  present-day  Eastern  Galicia, 
in  which  the  predominating  population  is  Little  Russian  or  Ruthen- 
ian,  while  Western  Galicia,  with  Cracow,  formed  part  of  Little 
Poland-  In  addition  Red  Russia  included  a  part  of  the  present 
Russian  Government  of  Podolia.] 


54  THE  JEWS   TN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

who  were  brought  up  by  their  motiier  in  the  Jewish  religion, 
and  two  sons,  who  were  educated  as  Christians,  and  who  sub- 
sequently became  the  progenitors  of  several  noble  families. 
Estherka  was  killed  during  the  persecution  to  which  the  Jews 
were  subjected  by  Casimir's  successor,  Louis  of  Hungary.  The 
whole  romantic  episode  presents  a  mixture  of  fact  and  fiction 
in  which  it  is  difficult  to  make  out  the  truth. 

Similarly  blurred  reports  have  come  down  to  us  concerning 
the  persecutions  by  the  new  ruler,  Louis  of  Hungary  (1370- 
1382).  During  the  reign  of  this  King,  when,  as  the  Polish 
historians  put  it,  justice  had  vanished,  the  law  kept  silent,  and 
the  people  complained  bitterly  about  the  despotism  of  the 
judges  and  officials,  an  attempt  was  made  to  rob  the  Jews 
of  the  protection  of  the  law.  Xursed  as  he  was  in  the  Catholic 
traditions  of  Western  Europe,  Louis  persecuted  the  Jews 
from  religious  motives,  threatening  with  expulsion  those 
among  them  who  had  refused  to  embrace  the  Christian  faith. 
Fortunately  for  the  Jews  his  reign  in  Poland  was  too  ephemeral 
and  unpopular  to  undo  the  work  of  his  famous  predecessor,  the 
last  king  of  the  Piast  dynasty.  Only  at  a  later  date,  during  the 
protracted  reign  of  the  Lithuanian  Grand  Duke  Yaghello, 
who  acquired  the  Polish  crown  by  marrying,  in  1386,  Louis' 
daughter  Yadviga,  did  the  Church  obtain  poAver  over  the 
affairs  of  the  state,  gradually  undermining  the  civil  status  of 
the  Jews  of  Poland. 

4.  Polish  Jewry  during  the  Eeign  of  Yaghello 

With  the  outgoing  fourteenth  century,  Poland  was  drawn 
more  and  more  into  the  whirlpool  of  European  politics.  Cathol- 
icism served  as  the  connecting  link  between  this  Slav  country 
and  Western  Europe.    Hence  the  influence  of  the  West  mani- 


COLONIES  IN   POLAND  AND  LITHUANIA  55 

fested  itself  primarily  in  the  enhancement  of  ecclesiastic 
authority,  which,  being  cosmopolitan  in  character,  endeavored 
to  obliterate  all  national  and  cultural  distinctions.  The 
Polish  king  Vladislav  Yaghello  (1386-1434),  having  been 
converted  from  paganism  to  Catholicism,  and  having  forced 
his  Lithuanian  subjects  to  follow  his  example,  adhered  to  the 
new  faith  with  the  ardor  of  a  convert,  and  frequently  yielded 
to  the  influence  of  the  clergy.  It  was  during  his  reign  that  the 
Jews  of  Poland  suffered  their  first  religious  persecution  in  that 
country. 

The  Jews  of  Posen  were  charged  with  having  bribed  a  poor 
Christian  Avoman  into  stealing  from  the  local  Dominican 
church  three  hosts,  which  supposedly  were  stabbed  and 
thrown  into  a  pit.  From  the  pierced  hosts,  so  the  super- 
stitious rumor  had  it,  blood  spurted  forth,  in  confirmation 
of  the  Eucharist  dogma.  Nor  was  this  the  only  miracle  which 
popular  imagination  ascribed  to  the  three  bits  of  holy  bread. 
The  Archbishop  of  Posen,  having  learned  of  the  alleged  blas- 
phemy, instituted  proceedings  against  the  Jews.  The  Eabbi 
of  Posen,  thirteen  elders  of  the  Jewish  community,  and  the 
woman  charged  with  the  theft  of  the  holy  wafers,  became  the 
victims  of  popular  superstition ;  after  prolonged  tortures  they 
were  all  tied  to  pillars,  and  roasted  alive  on  a  slow  fire  (1399). 
Moreover,  the  Jews  of  Posen  were  punished  by  the  imposition 
of  an  "  eternal  "  fine,  which  they  had  to  pay  annually  in  favor 
of  the  Dominican  church.  This  fine  was  rigorously  exacted 
down  to  the  eighteenth  century,  as  long  as  the  legend  of  the 
three  hosts  lingered  in  the  memory  of  pious  Catholics. 

As  in  the  West,  religious  motives  in  such  cases  merely  served 
as  a  disguise  to  cover  up  motives  of  an  economic  nature — 
envy  on  the  part  of  the  Christian  city-dwellers  of  the  pros- 


56  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

perity  of  the  Jews,  who  had  managed  to  obtain  a  foothold  in 
certain  branches  of  commerce,  and  eagerness  to  dispose  in  one 
way  or  another  of  inconvenient  rivals.  Similar  motives, 
coupled  with  religious  intolerance,  were  responsible  for  the 
anti-Jewish  riots  in  Cracow  in  1407.  In  that  ancient  capital 
of  Poland  the  Jews  had  increased  in  numbers  in  the  begin- 
ning of  the  fourteenth  century,  and,  by  their  commercial  enter- 
prise, had  attained  to  prosperity.  The  Cracow  burghers  were 
jealous  of  them,  and  the  clergy  found  it  improper  that  the 
doomed  sons  of  the  Synagogue  should  live  so  tranquilly  under 
the  shelter  of  the  benevolent  Church.  A  silent  but  stubborn 
agitation  was  carried  on  against  the  Jews,  their  enemies  merely 
waiting  for  a  convenient  opportunity  to  square  accounts  with 
them. 

On  one  occasion,  on  the  third  day  of  Easter,  the  priest 
Budek,  who  had  gained  the  reputation  of  an  implacable  Jew- 
baiter,  delivered  a  sermon  in  the  Church  of  St.  Barbara.  As 
he  was  about  to  leave  the  pulpit,  he  suddenly  announced  to 
the  worshipers  that  he  had  found  a  notice  on  the  pulpit  to  this 
effect :  "  The  Jews  living  in  Cracow  killed  a  Christian  boy 
last  night,  and  made  sport  over  his  blood ;  moreover,  they  threw 
stones  at  a  priest  who  was  going  to  visit  a  sick  man,  and  was 
carrying  a  crucifix  in  his  hands,"  No  sooner  had  these  words 
been  uttered  than  the  people  rushed  into  the  Jewish  street,  and 
began  to  loot  the  houses  of  "  Christ's  enemies."  The  royal 
authorities  hastened  to  the  rescue  of  the  Jews,  and  by  armed 
force  put  an  end  to  the  riots.  But  several  hours  later,  when 
the  bells  of  the  town  hall  began  to  ring,  summoning  the 
members  of  the  magistracy  to  a  meeting,  for  the  purpose 
of  punishing  the  instigators  of  the  disorders,  some  one  in  the 
crowd  shouted  that  the  magistracy  was  inviting  the  Chris- 


COLONIES  IN  POLAND  AND  LITHUANIA  57 

tians  to  another  attack  upon  the  Jews.  Thereupon  the 
rabble  came  running  from  all  parts  of  the  city  and  began  to 
slay  and  plunder  the  Jews,  setting  fire  to  their  houses.  Some 
Jews  sought  refuge  in  the  Tower  of  St.  Anne,  but  the  mob  set 
fire  to  the  tower,  and  the  unfortunate  Jews  had  to  surrender. 
A  number  of  them,  to  save  their  lives,  adopted  Christianity, 
while  the  children  of  the  slain  were  all  baptized.  Many 
Christians,  according  to  the  testimony  of  the  Polish  historian 
Dlugosh,^  grew  rich  on  the  money  plundered  from  the  Jews. 

One  cannot  fail  to  perceive  in  all  these  catastrophes  the 
influence  of  neighboring  Germany.*  It  was  from  Germany 
that  the  clerical  reaction  which  followed  upon  the  struggle  of 
the  Church  with  the  reformatory  Huss  movement  penetrated 
to  Poland.  The  Synod  of  Constance,  which  condemned  Huss, 
was  attended  by  the  Archbishop  of  Gnesen,  Nicholas  Tromba, 
who  appeared  at  the  head  of  a  Polish  delegation.  On  his 
return,  this  leading  dignitary  of  the  Polish  Church  presided 
over  the  proceedings  of  the  Synod  of  Kalish  (1420),  which 
had  also  been  convened  in  connection  with  the  Huss  movement. 

At  the  suggestion  of  this  Archbishop,  the  Council  of  Kalish 
solemnly  ratified  all  the  anti-Jewish  enactments  which  had 
been  passed  by  the  Councils  of  Breslau  and  Buda  (Ofen),^  but 
had  seldom  been  carried  out  in  practice.  These  laws,  as  will 
be  remembered,  forbade  all  intercourse  between  Jew  and 
Christian,  and  ordered  the  Jews  to  live  in  separate  quarters,  to 
wear  a  distinctive  mark  on  the  upper  garment,  and  so  forth. 
At  the  same  time  the  Jews  were  required  to  pay  a  tax  in  favor 

'Jan  Dlugosz,  called  in  Latin  Johannes  Longinus  [author  of 
Historia  Polonica.    He  died  in  1480]. 

^  The  recently  published  records  of  the  court  proceedings  in  the 
Cracow  pogrom  of  1407  show  that  its  principal  instigators  were 
German  artisans  and  merchants  who  resided  in  that  city. 

•  See  p.  47  and  p.  49. 


58  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

of  the  churches  of  those  diocesan  districts  "  where  they  now 
live,  and  where  by  right  Christians  ought  to  live,"  this  tax 
to  correspond  to  "  the  losses  inflicted  by  them  upon  the  Chris- 
tians." These  injunctions  were  issued  as  special  instructions 
to  the  members  of  the  clergy  in  all  the  dioceses. 

The  ecclesiastic  tendencies  gradually  forced  their  way  into 
secular  legislation.  The  fanatics  of  the  Church  exerted  their 
influence  not  only  on  the  King  but  also  on  the  landed  nobility, 
the  ShlakMa^  which  at  that  time  began  to  take  a  more  active 
interest  in  the  affairs  of  the  state.  At  the  convention  of  the 
Shlakhta  in  Varta"  (1423)  King  Vladislav  Yaghello  sanc- 
tioned a  law  forbidding  the  Jews  to  lend  money  against  written 
securities,  only  loans  against  pledges  being  permitted.  The 
ecclesiastic  origin  of  this  enactment  is  betrayed  in  the  ugly 
manner  in  which  the  law  is  justified  in  the  preamble :  "  Where- 
as Jewish  cunning  is  always  directed  against  the  Christians 
and  aims  rather  at  the  property  of  the  Christian  than  at  his 
creed  or  person  ..." 

5.  The  Jews  of  Lithuania  during  the  Eeign  of  Vitovt 

An  entirely  different  picture  is  presented  at  that  time  by 
Lithuania,  which,  in  spite  of  its  dynastic  alliance  with  Poland, 
retained  complete  autonomy  of  administration.  The  patriar- 
ch Written  in  Polish  Szlachta,  probably  derived  from  the  old  Ger- 
man slahta,  in  modern  German  Oeschlecht,  meaning  tribe,  caste. 
The  Polish  Shlakhta  was  in  complete  control  of  the  Diet,  or  sejm 
(pronounced  saym),  from  which  the  other  estates,  the  peasants  and 
burghers,  were  excluded  almost  entirely.  In  the  course  of  time,  the 
Shlakhta  succeeded  also  in  wresting  the  power  from  the  king,  who 
became  a  mere  figurehead.] 

[^  In  Polish,  Warta,  a  town  in  the  province  of  Kalish.  These 
conventions  of  the  nobility  assumed,  in  the  fifteenth  century,  the 
character  of  a  national  parliament  for  the  whole  of  Poland.] 


COLONIES  IN  POLAND  AND  LITHUANIA  59 

chal  order  of  things,  which  was  nearing  its  end  in  Poland, 
was  still  firmly  intrenched  in  the  Duchy  of  Lithuania,  but 
recently  emerged  from  the  stage  of  primitive  paganism. 
Medieval  culture  had  not  yet  taken  hold  of  the  inhabitants  of 
the  wooded  banks  of  the  Niemen,  and  the  Jews  were  able  to 
settle  there  without  having  to  face  violence  and  persecution. 

It  is  difficult  to  determine  the  exact  date  of  the  first  Jewish 
settlements  in  Lithuania.  So  much  is  certain,  however,  that  by 
the  end  of  the  fourteenth  century  a  number  of  important  com- 
munities were  in  existence,  such  as  those  of  Brest,  Grodno, 
Troki,  Lutzk,  and  Vladimir,  the  last  two  in  Volhynia,  which, 
prior  to  the  Polish-Lithuanian  Union  of  1579,  formed  part  of 
the  Duchy.  The  first  one  to  legalize  the  existence  of  these 
commimities  was  the  Lithuanian  Grand  Duke  Vitovt,  who 
ruled  over  Lithuania  from  1388  to  1430,  partly  as  an  inde- 
pendent sovereign,  partly  in  the  name  of  his  cousin,  the  Polish 
King  Yaghello.  In  1388  the  Jews  of  Brest  and  other  Lithua- 
nian communities  obtained  from  Vitovt  a  charter  similar  in 
content  to  the  statutes  of  Boleslav  of  Kalish  and  Casimir  the 
Great,  and  in  1389  even  more  extensive  privileges  were  be- 
stowed by  him  on  the  Jews  of  Grodno. 

In  these  enactments  the  Lithuanian  ruler  exhibits,  like 
Casimir,  an  enlightened  solicitude  for  a  peaceful  relationship 
between  Jews  and  Christians  and  for  the  inner  welfare  of  the 
Jewish  communities.  Under  the  laws  enacted  by  Vitovt  the 
Jews  of  Lithuania  formed  a  class  of  free  citizens,  standing 
under  the  immediate  protection  of  the  Grand  Duke  and 
his  local  administration.  They  lived  in  independent  com- 
munities, enjoying  autonomy  in  their  internal  affairs  as  far 
as  religion  and  property  are  concerned,  while  in  criminal 


60  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

affairs  they  were  liable  to  the  court  of  the  local  starosta '  or  sub- 
starosta,  and,  in  particularly  important  cases,  to  the  court  of 
the  Grand  Duke  himself.  The  law  guaranteed  to  the  Jews  in- 
violability of  person  and  property,  liberty  of  religion,  the  right 
of  free  transit,  the  free  pursuit  of  commerce  and  trade,  on 
equal  terms  with  the  Christians.  The  Lithuanian  Jews  carried 
on  business  on  the  market-places  or  in  shops,  they  plied  all 
kinds  of  trades,  and  occasionally  engaged  in  agriculture.  Men 
of  wealth  lent  money  on  interest,  leased  from  the  Grand  Duke 
the  customs  duties,  the  revenues  on  spirits,  and  other  taxes. 
They  held  estates  either  in  their  own  right  or  in  the  form  of 
land  leases.  The  taxes  which  they  paid  into  the  exchequer 
were  adapted  to  the  character  of  their  occupations,  and  on  the 
whole  were  not  burdensome.  Aside  from  the  Rabbanite  Jews 
there  existed  in  Lithuania  Karaites,  who  had  immigrated  from 
the  Crimea,  and  had  established  themselves  in  the  regions  of 
Troki  and  Lutzk. 

Accordingly  the  position  of  the  Jews  was  more  favorable  in 
Lithuania  than  in  Poland.  Jewish  immigrants,  on  their  way 
from  Germany  to  Poland,  frequently  went  as  far  as  Lithu- 
ania and  settled  there  permanently.  Lithuania  formed  the 
extreme  boundary  in  the  eastward  movement  of  the  Jews,  Rus- 
sia and  Muscovy  being  almost  entirely  closed  to  them. 

[^  Lithuania  was  administered  by  starostas  as  Poland  was  by 
voyevodas  (see  p.  46,  n.  1).  The  starostas — literally  "elders" — 
were  originally  nobles  holding  an  estate  of  the  crown,  which  was 
given  to  them  by  the  king  for  special  services  rendered  to  him. 
In  the  course  of  time  they  became,  both  in  Lithuania  and  In  Poland 
proper,  governors  of  whole  regions,  taking  over  many  of  the 
functions  of  the  voyevodas.  The  relationship  between  the  two 
oflScers  underwent  many  changes.  On  the  effect  of  this  change  upon 
the  jurisdiction  of  the  Jews  compare  Bloch,  Die  General-Privi- 
legien  der  polnischen  Judenschaft,  p.  35.] 


COLONIES  IN  POLAND  AND  LITHUANIA  61 

6.  The  Conflict  between  Royalty  and  Clergy  under 
Casimir  IV.  AND  His  Sons 

The  conflict  of  tendencies  in  the  Polish  legislation  concern- 
ing the  Jews  manifested  itself  with  particular  violence  in  the 
reign  of  Casimir  IV.,  the  third  king  of  the  Yaghello  dynasty. 
The  attitude  of  Casimir  IV.  (1447-1493),  who  was  imbued 
with  the  ideas  of  the  humanistic  movement  then  in  vogue,  was 
at  first  that  of  a  wise  ruler,  the  guardian  of  the  common  inter- 
ests of  his  subjects.  As  Grand  Duke  of  Lithuania  he  had  fol- 
lowed the  liberal  Jewish  policies  of  his  predecessor  Vitovt.  He 
protected  the  personal  and  communal  rights  of  both  the  Rab- 
banite  and  Karaite  Jews — to  the  latter  he  granted,  in  1441, 
the  Magdeburg  Law — and  he  frequently  availed  himself  of 
the  services  of  enterprising  Jewish  financiers  and  tax-farmers 
to  increase  the  revenues  of  the  state. 

Having  accepted  the  Polish  crown,  Casimir  was  resolved  to 
rule  independently  and  to  disregard  the  designs  of  the  all- 
powerful  clergy.  Shortly  after  his  coronation,  in  August,  1447, 
while  the  King  was  on  a  visit  to  Posen,  the  city  was  devastated 
by  a  terrible  fire.  During  the  conflagration  the  ancient  original 
of  the  charter  which  Casimir  the  Great  had  bestowed  upon  the 
Jews  was  lost.  A  Jewish  delegation  from  the  communities  of 
Posen,  Kalish,  and  other  cities  petitioned  the  King  to  restore 
and  ratify  the  old  Jewish  privileges,  on  the  basis  of  copies  of 
the  charter  which  had  been  spared.  Casimir  readily  granted 
the  request  of  the  deputies.  "  We  desire  " — he  announces  in 
his  new  charter — "  that  the  Jews,  whom  we  wish  to  protect  in 
our  own  interest  as  well  as  in  the  interest  of  the  royal  ex- 
chequer, should  feel  comforted  in  our  beneficent  reign."  Cor- 
roborating as  it  did  all  the  rights  and  privileges  previously 
conferred  upon  the  Jews — liberty  of  residence  and  commerce. 


63 


THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 


communal  and  judicial  autonomy,  inviolability  of  life  and 
liberty,  protection  against  groundless  charges  and  attacks — 
the  charter  of  Casimir  IV.  was  a  direct  protest  against  the 
canonical  laws  only  recently  reissued  for  Poland  by  the  Council 
of  Kalish,  and  for  the  whole  Catholic  world  by  the  great  Council 
at  Basle,  In  opposition  to  the  main  trend  of  the  Council  reso- 
lutions, the  royal  charter  permitted  the  Jews  to  associate  with 
Christians,  and  exempted  them  from  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
ecclesiastic  law  courts  (1453). 

The  King's  liberalism  aroused  the  resentment  of  the  Catholic 
clergy.  The  leader  of  the  clerical  party  was  the  energetic 
Archbishop  of  Cracow,  Cardinal  Zbignyev  Oleshnitzki,  who 
openly  headed  the  forces  arrayed  in  opposition  to  the  King. 
He  denounced  Casimir  bitterly  for  granting  protection  to  the 
Jews,  "  to  the  injury  and  insult  of  the  holy  faith." 

Do  not  imagine — Oleshnitzki  writes  to  the  King  in  May,  1454 — 
that  in  matters  touching  the  Christian  religion  you  are  at  liberty 
to  pass  any  law  you  please.  No  one  is  great  and  strong  enough 
to  put  down  all  opposition  to  himself  when  the  interests  of  the 
faith  are  at  stake.  I  therefore  beg  and  implore  your  Royal 
Majesty  to  revoke  the  aforementioned  privileges  and  liberties. 
Prove  that  you  are  a  Catholic  sovereign,  and  remove  all  occasion 
for  disgracing  your  name  and  for  worse  offenses  that  are  likely  to 
follow. 

In  his  letter  Oleshnitzki  refers  to  the  well-known  agitator 
and  Jew-baiter,  the  Papal  Legate  Capistrano,  who  had  come  to 
Poland  from  Germany  in  the  fall  of  1453.  With  this  "  scourge 
of  the  Jews  "  as  his  ally  Oleshnitzki  started  a  campaign  against 
Jews  and  heretics  (or  Hussites).  On  his  arrival  in  Cracow 
Capistrano  delivered  on  the  market-place  incendiary  speeches 
against  the  Jews,  and  demanded  of  the  King  persistently  to 
revoke  the  "  godless  "  Jewish  privileges,  threatening  him,  in 


COLONIES  IN  POLAND  AND  LITHUANIA  63 

case  of  disobedience,  with  the  tortures  of  hell  and  terrible  mis- 
fortunes for  the  country. 

At  first  the  King  refused  to  yield,  but  the  march  of  events 
favored  the  anti-Jewish  forces.  Poland  was  at  war  with  the 
Teutonic  Order.'  The  first  defeat  sustained  by  the  Polish 
troops  in  this  war  (September,  1454)  gave  the  clergy  an  oppor- 
tunity of  proclaiming  that  the  Lord  was  chastising  the  country 
for  the  King's  disregard  of  Church  interests  and  for  his  protec- 
tion of  the.  Jews.  At  last  the  King  was  forced  to  listen  to  the 
demands  of  the  united  clergy  and  nobility.  In  November,  1454, 
the  Statute  of  Nyeshava "  was  promulgated,  and  by  one  of  its 
clauses  all  former  Jewish  privileges  were  rescinded  as  "  being 
equally  opposed  to  Divine  right  and  earthly  laws."  The  rea- 
sons for  the  enactment,  which  were  evidently  dictated  by 
Oleshnitzki,  were  formulated  as  follows :  "  For  it  is  not  meet 
that  infidels  should  enjoy  greater  advantages  than  the  wor- 
shipers of  our  Lord  Christ,  and  slaves  should  have  no  right 
to  occupy  a  better  position  than  sons."  The  Varta  Statutes 
of  1423  and  the  former  canonical  laws  were  declared  in  force 
again.    Clericalism  had  scored  a  triumph. 

This  anti-Jewish  tendency  communicated  itself  to  the  people 
at  large.  In  several  towns  the  Jews  were  attacked.  In  1463 
detachments  of  Polish  volunteers  who  were  preparing  for  a 
crusade  against  the  Turks  passed  through  Lemberg  and  Cracow 
on  their  way  to  Hungary.  The  disorderly  crowd,  consisting 
of  monks,  students,  peasants,  and  impoverished  noblemen, 
threw  itself  on  the  Jews  of  Cracow  on  the  third  day  of  Easter, 

[^A  semi-ecclesiastic,  semi-military  organization  of  German 
knights,  which  originated  in  Palestine  during  the  Crusades,  and 
was  afterwards  transferred  to  Europe  to  propagate  Christianity 
on  the  eastern  confines  of  Germany.  The  Order  developed  into  a 
powerful  state,  which  became  a  great  menace  to  Poland.] 

[^  In  Polish  Nieszawa,  the  meeting-place  of  the  Diet  of  that  year.] 
5 


^4  THE  JEWS   IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

looted  their  houses,  and  killed  about  thirty  people.  When 
Casimir  IV.  learned  what  had  happened,  he  imposed  a  fine 
on  the  magistracy  for  having  failed  to  forestall  the  riots.  Sim- 
ilar disorders  were  taking  place  about  the  same  time  in  Lem- 
berg,  Posen,  and  other  cities. 

As  far  as  Casimir  IV.  was  concerned,  the  clerical  policy,  arti- 
ficially foisted  upon  him,  did  not  alter  his  personal  readiness 
to  shield  the  Jews.  But  under  his  sons,  the  Polish  King  John 
Albrecht  and  the  Lithuanian  Grand  Duke  Alexander  Yaghello, 
the  an ti- Jewish  policy  gained  the  upper  hand.  The  former 
ratified,  at  the  Piotrkov  Diet  of  1496,  the  Nyeshava  Statute 
with  its  anti- Jewish  restrictions.  Jolin  Albrecht  is  also 
credited  with  the  establishment  of  the  first  ghetto  in  Poland. 
In  1194  a  large  part  of  the  Polish  capital  of  Cracow  was  de- 
stroyed by  fire,  and  tlie  mob,  taking  advantage  of  the  prevailing 
panic,  jjlundered  the  property  of  tlie  Jews.  As  a  result,  the 
Jews,  who  at  that  time  were  scattered  over  various  parts  of  the 
city,  were  ordered  by .  the  King  to  move  to  Kazimiezh,*  a 
suburb  of  Cracow,  and  to  live  there  apart  from  the  Christians. 
Kazimiezh  became,  in  consequence,  a  wholly  Jewish  town, 
leading  throughout  the  centuries  a  life  of  its  own,  and  con- 
nected with  the  outside  world  by  mere  threads  of  economic 
relationship. 

While  the  throne  of  Poland  was  occupied  by  John  All)recht, 
his  brother  Alexander  ruled  over  Lithuania  as  grand  duke. 
At  first  Alexander's  attitude  towards  the  Jews  was  rather 
favorable.  In  1492  he  complied  with  the  petition  of  the 
Karaites  of  Troki,  and  confirmed  the  charter  of  Casimir  IV,, 
bestowing  upon  them  the  Magdeburg  Law,  and  even  supple- 

[Mvlore  exactly  Kazimierz,  the  Polish  form  for  Casimir  (the 
Great),  after  whom  the  town  was  named.] 


COLONIES  IN  POLAND  AND  LITHUANIA  65 

menting  it  by  a  few  addiiiunal  privileges.  Various  items  of 
public  revenue,  especially  the  customs  duties,  were  as  thereto- 
fore let  to  the  Jews.  Alexander  also  paid  the  Jewish  capital- 
ists part  of  the  money  advanced  by  them  to  his  father.  In  14:95, 
however,  the  Grand  Duke  suddenly  issued  a .  decree  order- 
ing the  expulsion  of  all  the  Jews  from  Lithuania.  It  is  not 
I<nown  whether  this  cruel  action  was  due  to  the  influence  of  the 
anti-Jewish  clerical  party,  and  was  stimulated  by  the  news  of 
the  expulsion  of  the  Jews  from  Spain,  or  whether  it  M'as 
prompted  by  the  financial  dependence  of  the  ruler  on  his  Jew- 
ish creditors,  or  by  the  general  desire  to  enrich  himself  at  the 
expense  of  the  exiles.  As  a  matter  of  fact  Alexander  confis- 
cated the  immovable  property  of  the  expelled  Jews  in  the  dis- 
tricts of  Grodno,  Brest,  Lutzk,  and  Troki,  and  a  large  part 
thereof  was  distributed  by  him  among  the  local  Christian 
residents.  The  banished  Jews  emigrated  partly  to  the  Crimea 
( Kafia ) ,  but  the  majority  settled,  with  the  permission  of  King 
John  Albrecht,  in  the  neighboring  Polish  cities.  However, 
when  a  few  years  later,  after  the  death  of  his  brother,  Alexander 
accepted,  in  addition,  the  crown  of  Poland  (1501),  he  allowed 
the  Jews  to  return  to  Lithuania  and  settle  in  their  former 
places  of  residence.  On  this  occasion  tliey  received  back, 
though  not  in  all  cases,  the  houses,  estates,  synagogues,  and 
cemeteries  previously  owned  by  them  (1503). 

By  the  beginning  of  the  fourteenth  century  Polish  Jewry 
had  become  a  big  ecomonic  and  social  factor  with  which  t!ie 
state  was  bound  to  reckon.  It  was  now  destined  to  become 
also  an  independent  spiritual  entity,  having  stood  for  four 
hundred  years  under  the  tutelage  of  the  Jewish  center  in 
Germany.  The  further  development  of  this  new  factor  forms 
one  of  the  most  prominent  features  of  the  next  period. 


CHAPTER  III 

THE  AUTONOMOUS  CENTER  IN  POLAND  AT  ITS 
ZENITH   (1501-1648) 

1.  Social  and  Economic  Conditions 

In  the  same  age  in  which  the  Jewish  refugees  from  Spain 
and  Portugal  were  wending  their  steps  towards  the  Turkish 
p]ast,  bands  of  Jewish  emigrants,  fleeing  from  the  stuffy  ghet- 
tos of  Germany  and  Austria,  could  be  seen  wandering  towards 
the  Slavonian  East,  towards  Poland  and  Lithuania,  where, 
during  the  period  of  the  Reformation,  a  large  autonomous 
Diaspora  center  sprang  into  life.  The  transmigration  of  Jew- 
ish centers,  which  is  so  prominent  a  feature  of  the  sixteenth 
century,  found  its  expression  in  two  parallel  movements:  the 
demolished  or  impoverished  centers  of  Western  Europe  were 
transplanted  to  the  countries  of  Eastern  Europe  on  the  one 
hand,  and  to  the  lands  of  contiguous  Western  Asia  on  the 
other.  Yet  the  destinies  of  the  two  Eastern  centers — Turkey 
and  Poland — were  not  identical.  The  Sephardim  of  Turkey 
were  approaching  the  end  of  their  brilliant  historic  career,  and 
were  gradually  lapsing  into  Asiatic  stupor,  while  the  Ash- 
kenazim  of  Poland,  with  a  supply  of  fresh  strength  and  the 
promise  of  an  original  culture,  were  starting  out  on  their  broad 
historic  development.  The  mission  of  the  Sephardim  was  a 
memory  of  the  past;  that  of  the  Ashkenazim  was  a  hope  for 
the  future.  After  medieval  Babylonia  and  Spain,  no  coun- 
try presented  so  intense  a  concentration  of  Jewish  energy  and  so 
vast  a  field  for  the  development  of  a  Jewish  autonomous  life 
as  Poland  in  the  sixteenth  and  the  following  centuries,* 

^  According  to  approximate  computations,  the  number  of  Jews 
in  Poland  during  tliat  period  (between  1501  and  1648)  grew  from 
50,000  to  500,000. 


THE  CENTER  IN  POLAND  AT  ITS  ZENITH  67 

The  uninterrupted  colonization  of  Slavonian  lands  by  Jew- 
ish emigrants  from  Germany,  which  had  been  going  on  during 
the  Middle  Ages,  prepared  the  soil  for  the  historic  process  which 
converted  Poland  from  a  colony  into  a  center  of  Judaism.  The 
large  Jewish  population  settled  in  the  towns  and  villages  of 
Poland  and  Lithuania  formed,  not  a  downtrodden  caste,  nor  a 
homogeneous  economic  class,  as  in  Germany,  but  an  important 
social  entity,  unfolding  its  energy  in  many  departments  of 
social-economic  life.  It  was  not  tied  down  to  two  exclusive 
occupations,  money-lending  and  petty  trade,  but  it  participated 
in  all  branches  of  industrial  endeavor,  in  production  and  manu- 
facture, not  excluding  rural  avocations,  such  as  land  tenure 
and  farming.  The  men  of  wealth  among  the  Jews  farmed 
the  tolls  (transit  and  customs  duties)  and  the  excise  (state 
taxes  collected  on  wine*  and  other  articles  of  consumption), 
and  frequently  attained  to  prominence  as  the  financial  agents  of 
the  kings.  When,  at  a  later  date,  the  Jews  were  hampered  in 
the  business  of  tax-farming,  their  capital  found  a  new  outlet  in 
the  lease  of  crown  and  Shlakhta  estates,  with  the  right  of 
"  propination,"  ^  or  liquor  traflfic,  attached  to  it,  as  well  as  in 
working  the  salt  mines,  in  timbering  forests,  and  opening  up 
the  other  resources  of  the  soil.  The  big  merchants  were  busy 
exporting  agrarian  products  from  Poland  into  Austria,  Mol- 

[*  "  Wine  "  is  used  here,  as  it  is  in  the  original,  to  designate  alco- 
holic drinks  in  general.] 

['"' Propination,"  in  Polish,  propinacja  (pronounced  propi- 
natzya),  from  Latin  and  Greek  propino,  "to  drink  one's  health," 
signifies  in  Polish  law  the  right  of  distilling  and  selling  spirituous 
liquors.  This  right  was  granted  to  the  noble  landowners  by  King 
John  Albrecht  in  1496,  and  became  one  of  their  most  important 
sources  of  revenue.  After  the  partition  of  Poland  this  right  was 
confirmed  for  the  former  Polish  territories  by  the  Russian  Govern- 
ment The  right  of  i>ropination,  exercised  mostly  by  Jews  on  behalf 
of  the  nobles,  proved  a  decisive  factor  in  the  economic  and  partly 
in  the  social  life  of  Russo-Polish  Jewry.] 


e8  THE  JEWS   IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

davo-Wallachia,  and  Turkey.  The  lower  classes  engaged  in 
retail  trade,  handicrai'ts,  farming,  vegetable-growing,  garden- 
ing, and,  in  some  places,  particularly  in  Lithuania,  even  in 
corn-growing. 

The  economic  activity  of  the  Jews,  entwined  with  the  ma- 
terial life  of  the  country  by  numerous  threads,  was  bound  to 
produce  a  similar  variety  of  form  also  in  their  legal  condition. 
Considering  the  peculiar  caste  structure  of  the  Polish  state  and 
the  relative  political  freedom  enjoyed  in  that  semi-constitu- 
tional country  by  the  ''governing  classes" — the  landed 
nobility,  the  clergy,  and  partly  the  Inirghers — the  legal  posi- 
tion of  the  Jews  was  of  necessity  determined  by  the  conflict  of 
political  and  class  interests.  Bridled  by  an  oligarchic  con- 
stitution, the  royal  power  was  bound  to  clash  with  the  vast 
privileges  of  the  landed  magnates,  the  big  Shlakhta.  The 
latter,  in  turn,  on  the  one  hand  fought  the  claims  of  the  petty 
rural  Shlakhta,  and  on  the  other  resisted  the  advance  of  the 
Christinii  urban  estates,  the  business  men,  and  craftsmen,  who 
were  a  powerful  factor,  owing  to  their  municipal  autonomy 
and  their  well-organized  guilds.  The  fight  was  carried  on  in 
the  Diets,  municipalities,  and  law  courts.  Within  this  conflict 
of  economic  interests  the  clergy  of  the  dominant  Catholic 
Church  pursued  its  own  line  of  attack.  Having  been  weak- 
ened during  the  Reformation,  it  now  renewed  its  strength  in 
consequence  of  the  Catholic  reaction  and  the  arduous  endeavors 
of  the  Jesuits. 

These  estates  differed  in  their  relation  to  the  Jews,  each  in 
accordance  with  its  own  interests.  Medieval  ideas  had  already 
taken  such  deep  root  in  the  Polish  people  that,  despite  the 
constitutional  character  of  the  country,  a  humane  and  law- 
ful attitude  towards  the  Jews  was  out  of  the  question.    They 


THE  CENTER  IN  POLAND  AT  ITS  ZENITH  69 

were  appiaised  aecordiug  to  the  advautages  they  could  bestow 
upon  this  or  that  class,  and  since  in  many  cases  what  was  ad- 
vantageous to  one  class  was  disadvantageous  to  another,  a  con- 
flict of  interests  was  unavoidable,  with  the  result  that  the  Jews 
were  the  objects  of  protection  on  the  one  side  and  the  targets 
of  persecution  on  the  other. 

The  Jews  of  Poland  were  favored  by  two  powers  within  the 
state,  by  royalty  and  in  part  by  the  big  Shlakhta.  They  were 
opposed  by  two  others,  the  clergy  and  the  burghers.  Aside 
from  the  interests  of  the  exchequer,  which  was  swelled  by 
regular  and  irregular  imposts  upon  the  Jews,  the  kings  derived 
personal  benefits  from  their  commercial  activities.  They 
valued  the  financial  services  of  the  Jewish  tax-farmers,  who 
paid  large  sums  in  advance  for  the  lease  of  customs  duties 
and  state  revenues  or  for  the  tenure  of  the  royal  domains. 
These  contractors  and  tenants  became,  as  a  rule,  financial 
agents  of  the  kings,  owing  to  their  ability  to  advance  large 
sums  of  money,  and  were  incidentally  in  a  position  to  exert 
their  influence  upon  the  court  in  the  interest  of  their  core- 
ligionists. The  high  nobility  in  turn  appreciated  the  usefulness 
of  the  Jewish  farmers  and  tenants  to  their  estates,  which  they 
themselves,  with  their  aristocratic  indifl^erence  and  indolence, 
knew  only  how  to  mismanage.  The  protection  which  this  class 
accorded  the  Jews,  principally  at  the  Diets  controlled  l)y  them, 
was  in  exact  proportion  to  the  services  rendered  by  the  Jews  as 
midtllemen  between  them  and  the  peasants.  The  magnates 
accordingly  were  entirely  inditt'erent  to  the  welfare  of  the 
rest  of  Jewry,  the  toiling  masses  of  the  Jewish  population. 

Uncompromising  hostility  to  the  Jews  marked  the  attitude 
of  the  urban  estates,  the  merchants  and  artisans  of  the  burgher 
class,  with  a  considerable  sprinkling  of  German  settlers,  whose 


70  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

influence  was  clearly  noticeable.  These  organized  tradesmen 
and  handicraftsmen  looked  upon  the  Jews  as  their  direct  com- 
petitors. The  magistracies,  acting  as  the  organs  of  municipal 
self-government,  placed  severe  restrictions  upon  the  Jews  in 
the  acquisition  of  real  estate  and  in  the  pursuit  of  business  and 
handicrafts,  while  the  trade-unions  occasionally  set  the  riotous 
mobs  at  their  heels.  Still  more  resolute  was  the  agitation  of  the 
Catholic  clergy,  which  frequently  succeeded  in  influencmg 
legislation  in  the  spirit  of  ecclesiastic  intolerance. 

The  interaction  of  all  these  forces  shaped  the  legal  and  social 
status  of  the  Polish-Lithuanian  Jews  in  the  course  of  the  six- 
teenth and  in  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century,  at  a 
time  when  Poland  was  passing  through  the  zenith  of  her  politi- 
cal prosperity.  The  vacillations  and  upheavals  in  the  position 
of  the  Jews  were  conditioned  by  the  shifting  of  forces  in  the 
direction  of  the  one  or  the  other  above-mentioned  factors  in  the 
course  of  history. 

2.  The  Liberal  Regime  of  Sigismund  I. 

The  opening  years  of  the  sixteenth  century  found  the  Jews 
fully  restored  to  the  rights  of  which  their  enemies  had  attempted 
to  rob  them  at  the  end  of  the  preceding  century.  Alexander 
Yaghello,  the  very  same  Lithuanian  Grand  Duke  who,  from 
some  obscure  motive,  had  banished  the  Jews  from  his  dominions 
in  1495,*  found  it  necessary  to  call  them  back  as  soon  as  he 
ascended  the  throne  of  Poland,  after  the  demise  of  his  brother. 
In  1503,  "having  consulted  the  lords  of  the  realm,"  King 
Alexander  announced  his  decision  to  the  effect  that  the  Jews 
exiled  from  Grodno  and  other  cities  of  Lithuania  should  be 

'  See  p.   65. 


THE  CENTER  IN  POLAND  AT  ITS  ZENITH  71 

allowed  to  return  and  settle  "near  the  castles  and  in  the 
localities  in  which  they  had  lived  formerly,"  and  should  be 
given  back  the  houses,  synagogues,  cemeteries,  farms,  and 
fields,  which  had  previously  been  in  their  possession.  The 
reasons  for  this  change  of  front  may  easily  be  traced  to  the 
vast  economic  importance  of  the  Jews  of  the  Polish  Kingdom, 
which  had  shortly  before,  in  1501,  entered  into  a  closer  union 
with  Lithuania,  and  to  the  invaluable  services  of  the  Jewish 
tax-farmers,  on  whom  the  royal  budget  to  a  large  extent 
depended. 

One  of  these  "  royal  financiers  "  was  the  wealthy  Yosko,'  who 
farmed  the  customs  and  tolls  in  nearly  half  of  Poland.  To 
stimulate  the  endeavors  of  his  financier.  King  Alexander 
exempted  Yosko  and  his  employees  from  the  authority  of  the 
local  administration,  placing  him,  after  the  manner  of  court 
dignitaries,  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  royal  court.  But, 
taken  as  a  whole,  the  King  was  even  now  far  from  friendly  to 
the  Jews.  In  1505  he  permitted  the  inclusion  of  the  ancient 
charter  of  Boleslav  of  Kalish,  the  magna  charta  of  Jewish 
liberties,  in  the  code  of  organic  Polish  laws,  which  was  then 
being  edited  by  the  chancellor  John  Laski.  But  he  was  careful 
to  point  out  that  he  did  not  thereby  intend  to  ratify  Boleslav's 
charter  anew,  but  allowed  its  reproduction  "  for  the  purpose 
of  safeguarding  [the  Christian  population]  against  the  Jews  " 
(ad  cautelam  defensionis  contra  Judaeos). 

Alexander's  successor,  Sigismund  I.  Yaghello  (1506-1548), 
King  of  Poland  and  Grand  Duke  of  Lithuania,  favored  a  more 
liberal  policy  towards  his  Jewish  subjects.  Though  a  staunch 
Catholic,  Sigismund  was  free  from  the  spirit  of  anti-Jewish 
clericalism,  and  he  endeavored  to  the  best  of  his  ability  to  live 

[^  Popular  Polish  form  of  the  Jewish  name  Joseph.] 


72  THE  JEWS   IN  RUSSIA   AND  POLAND 

lip  to  the  primtiple  proclaimed  In  liim,  that  "  equal  justice 
should  be  meted  out  to  the  rich  and  mighty  lords  and  to  the 
meanest  pauper."  This  lofty  principle,  so  little  compatible 
with  the  policy  of  class  discrimination,  could,  however  inade- 
quately, be  applied  only  there  where  the  power  of  royalty  was 
not  handicapped  by  the  mighty  Shlakhta  and  the  other  estates. 
The  only  part  of  the  Polish  Empire  where  such  a  condition  still 
existed  in  the  time  of  Sigismund  I.  was  Lithuania,  the  patri- 
mony of  the  Yaghellos.  There  the  royal,  or  rather  the  grand 
ducal,  authority  was  more  extensive  and  its  form  of  manifesta- 
tion more  patriarchal  than  in  the  provinces  of  the  Crown,  or 
Poland  proper.  By  intrusting  a  large  part  of  the  public  tax 
contracts  and  land  leases  to  the  Jewish  capitalists,  the  King 
could  feel  easy  in  his  mind  as  to  the  integrity  of  his  budget. 
The  general  contractor  of  the  customs  and  other  state  revenues 
in  Lithuania,  ^[ichael  Yosefovich  (son  of  Joseph),  a  Jew  from 
Brest-Litovsk,  exercised  occasionally  also  the  functions  of 
grand  ducal  treasurer,  being  commissioned  to  pay  out  of  the 
collected  imposts  the  salaries  of  the  local  officials  as  well  as  the 
debts  of  his  royal  master. 

Prompted  by  the  desire  of  rewarding  the  services  of  his 
financier  and  at  the  same  time  putting  the  communal  affairs 
of  his  Jewish  subjects  in  better  order,  Sigismund  appointed 
^[ichael  Yosefovich  to  serve  as  the  elder,  or,  to  use  the  official 
term,  the  "senior,"  of  all  Lithuanian  Jews  (1514).  The 
"senior"  was  invested  with  far-reaching  powers:  he  had  the 
right  of  conferring  directly  with  the  king  in  all  important 
Jewish  affairs,  dispensing  justice  to  his  coreligionists  in  accord- 
ance with  their  own  laws,  and  collecting  from  them  the  taxes 
imposed  by  the  state.  He  was  to  be  assisted  by  a  rabbi  or 
"  doctor,"  an  expert  in  Jewish  law.    Whether  the  Lithuanian 


THE  CENTER  IN  POLAND  AT  ITS  ZENITH  73 

Jews  acknowledged  Michael  Yosefovich  as  their  supreme  au- 
thority is  open  to  doubt.  The  wealth}^  contractor,  whom  the 
will  of  the  King  had  placed  at  the  head  of  the  Jews,  could  not 
in  point  of  fact  preside  over  their  autonomous  organization  and 
their  judiciary  and  rabbinate,  since  what  was  required  was  not 
officials,  but  men  with  special  knowledge  and  training.  All 
Michael  could  do  was  to  act  as  the  official  go-between,  repre- 
senting the  Jewish  communities  before  the  King  and  defending 
their  rights  and  privileges  as  well  as  their  commercial  and 
fiscal  interests.  In  any  event  Michael  was  more  useful  to  his 
coreligionists  than  his  brother  Abraham  Yosefovich,  who,  like- 
wise a  tax-farmer,  sacrificed  his  Judaism  for  the  sake  of  a 
successful  career.  King  Alexander  conferred  upon  Abraham 
the  rank  of  Starosta  of  Smolensk,  while  Sigismund  raised  him 
to  the  exalted  position  of  Chancellor  of  the  Lithuanian  Exche- 
quer. Abraham  and  his  offspring  were  soon  lost  in  the  ranks  of 
the  higher  Polish  nobility. 

In  agricultural  Lithuania  with  its  patriarchal  conditions 
of  life  the  antagonism  between  the  classes  was  in  its  infancy, 
and  as  a  result  the  right  of  the  Jews  to  freedom  of  transit  and 
occupation  was  but  rarely  contested.  They  lived  in  the  towns 
and  villages,  and  were  not  yet  so  sharply  marked  off,  in 
language  and  mode  of  life,  from  the  Christian  population  as 
they  became  afterwards.  The  Jewish  communities  of  Brest, 
Grodno,  Pinsk,  and  Troki.  the  last  consisting  principally  of 
Karaites,  who  had  a  municipality  of  their  own,  were  important 
Jewish  centers  in  the  Duchy,  and  enjoyed  considerable  autono- 
my. The  rabbi  of  Brest,  Mendel  Frank,  received  from  the 
King  extensive  administrative  and  judicial  powers,  including 
the  right  of  imposing  the  hcrem  and  other  penalties  upon  the 
recalcitrant  members  of  the  community  (1531). 


74  THE  JEWS   IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

In  the  large  cities  of  Poland  proper  the  position  of  the  Jews 
was  not  nearly  so  favorable.  Here  commercial  life  had  attained 
a  higher  stage  of  development  than  in  Lithuania,  and  in 
many  lines  of  business  the  Jews  competed  with  the  Chris- 
tians. Taking  advantage  of  the  autonomy  granted  to  the 
estates  in  the  shape  of  the  Magdeburg  Law,  the  Christian 
business  men  and  handicraftsmen,  represented  by  their  magis- 
tracies and  trade-unions,  were  constantly  endeavoring  to  re- 
strict their  rivals  in  their  commercial  pursuits.  This  was 
particularly  the  case  in  Posen,  Cracow,  and  Lemberg,  the  lead- 
ing centers  respectively  of  the  three  provinces  of  Great  Poland. 
Little  Poland,  and  Ked  Russia  (Calicia).  In  Posen  the  Jews 
were  hampered  by  the  burgomaster  and  the  aldermen  in  carrying 
on  their  business  or  in  displaying  their  goods  in  stores  outside 
the  Jewish  quarter.  When  the  Jews  protested  to  the  King, 
he  warned  the  authorities  of  Posen  not  to  subject  their  rivals 
to  any  hardships  or  to  violate  their  privileges  (1517).  The 
Christian  merchants  retorted  that  the  Jews  occupied  the  best 
shops,  not  only  in  the  center  of  the  town,  but  also  on  the 
market-place,  wliere  formerly  only  "  prominent  Christian  mer- 
chants, both  native  and  foreign  [German],  had  been  doing 
business,"  and  where,  in  view  of  the  concentration  of  large 
masses  of  Christians,  the  presence  of  Jews  might  lead  to 
"  great  temptations,"  and  even  to  seduction  from  the  path  of 
the  "  true  faith."  The  reference  to  religion,  used  as  a  cloak 
for  commercial  greed,  did  not  fail  to  impress  the  devout 
Sigismund,  and  he  forbade  the  Jews  to  keep  stores  on  the 
market-place  (1530).  The  professors  of  Christian  love  in 
Posen  similarly  forbade  their  Jewish  fellow-citizens  to  buy 
foodstuffs  and  other  articles  in  the  market  until  the  Christian 
residents  had  completed  their  purchases.     A  little  later  the 


THE  CENTER  IN  POLAND  AT  ITS  ZENITH  75 

King,  in  consequence  of  the  influx  of  Jews  into  Posen,  gave 
orders  that  no  new  Jewish  settlers  be  admitted  into  the  city,  and 
that  no  houses  o^vned  by  Christians  be  sold  to  them,  without  the 
permission  of  the  Kahal  elders.  The  Jews  were  to  be  restricted 
to  definite  quarters  and  to  be  denied  the  right  of  building  their 
houses  among  those  belonging  to  Christians  (1523). 

The  same  was  the  case  in  Lemberg.  Yielding  to  the  com- 
plaints of  the  magistracy  about  the  competition  of  the  Jews,  the 
King  restricted  their  freedom  of  commerce  in  several  particu- 
lars, barring  them  from  selling  cloth  in  the  whole  of  [Red] 
Russia  and  Podolia,  except  at  the  fairs,  and  limiting  their  sale 
of  horned  cattle  to  two  thousand  head  per  year  (1515).  The 
Piotrkov  Diet  of  1521  passed  a  law  confining  the  trade  of  the 
Lemberg  Jews  to  four  articles,  wax,  furs,  cloth,  and  horned 
cattle.  These  restrictions  were  the  result  of  the  widespread 
agitation  which  the  pious  Christian  merchants  had  been  con- 
ducting against  their  business  rivals  of  other  faiths.  The 
magistracies  of  the  three  cities  of  Posen,  Lemberg,  and  Cracow, 
attempted  to  form  a  coalition  for  the  purpose  of  carrying  on  a 
joint  economic  fight  against  Jewry.  In  Cracow  and  its  suburb 
Kazimiezh '  the  Jews  had  to  endure  even  harsher  restrictions 
in  business  than  in  the  other  two  metropolitan  centers  of 
Poland. 

Competition  in  business  occasionally  resulted  in  physical 
violence  and  street  riots.  Anti- Jewish  attacks  were  taking 
place  in  Posen  and  in  Brest-Kuyavsk,"  and  outbreaks  were 
anticipated  in  Cracow.  Representatives  of  the  last  Jewish 
community  made  their  apprehensions  known  to  the  King. 

[^See  p.  64,  n.  1.] 

['  /.  e.  Brest  of  Kuyavia,  a  former  Polish  province  on  the  left 
bank  of  the  Vistula.  It  is  to  be  distinguished  from  the  well-known 
Brest-Litovsk,  Brest  of  Lithuania.] 


76  THE  JEWS   IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

Sigisiimiid  issued  a  decree  in  1330  deiiouueing  in  vehciiient 
terms  the  insolence  of  the  rioters,  who  were  hoping  for  im- 
munity, and  rigorously  forbidding  all  acts  of  violence,  under 
penalty  of  death  and  confiscation  of  property.  To  allay  the 
fears  of  the  Jews  he  ordered  the  burghers  of  Cracow  to  deposit 
the  sum  of  ten  thousand  gulden  with  the  exchequer  as  security 
for  the  maintenance  of  peace  and  safety  in  the  city.  The 
burgomasters,  aldermen,  and  trade-unions  Avere  warned  by  the 
King  that  in  all  their  differences  with  Jews  "  they  should 
proceed  in  a  legal  manner,  and  not  by  violence,  by  resorting 
to  force  of  arms  and  inciting  disorders." 

The  King  was  powerless,  however,  to  shield  the  Jews  against 
other  unpleasant  manifestations  of  the  Polish  class  regime, 
such  as  the  extortions  of  the  officials.  The  highest  dignitaries 
of  the  court  no  less  than  the  local  administration  were  ever 
ready  to  fish  in  the  troubled  waters  of  the  conflict  of  classes. 
The  second  wife  of  Sigismund,  Queen  Bona  Sforza,  an  avari- 
cious Italian  princess,  sold  the  offices  of  the  state  to  the  highest 
bidder,  while  the  courtiers  and  voyevodas  were  just  as  venal 
on  their  own  behalf.  The  queen's  favorite,  Peter  Kmita, 
Voyevoda  of  Cracow  and  ^larslial  of  the  Crown,  managed  to 
accept  bribes  simultaneously  from  the  Jewish  and  the  Chris- 
tian merchants,  who  lodged  complaints  against  each  other,  by 
promising  both  sides  to  defend  their  interests  before  the  Diet 
or  the  King. 

During  tlie  fourth  decade  of  the  sixteenth  century  the 
Jewish  question  became  the  object  of  violent  disputes  at  the 
Polish  Diets,  the  deputies  of  several  regions  having  received 
anti-Jewish  instructions.^     Now  the  controlling  factor  in  the 

L'  The  parliamentary  order  of  Poland  was  somewhat  complicated. 
Each  region  or  voyevoclslvo  (see  above,  p.  46,  n.  1),  of  which  there 
were  about  sixty  in  Poland,  had  its  own  local  assembly,  or  sejmik 


THE  CENTER  IN  POLAND  AT  ITS  ZENITH  7; 

Polish  Diets  was  the  Shlakhta,  whoiie  attitude  towards  the 
Jews  was  not  uniform.  The  big  Shlakhta,  the  magnates,  the 
owners  of  huge  estates  and  whole  towns,  were  favorably  dis- 
posed towards  the  Jews  who  lived  in  their  domains,  and  added 
to  their  wealth  as  farmers  and  tax-pa3'ers.  But  the  petty 
Shlakhta,  the  struggling  squires,  who  were  looking  for  places 
in  the  civil  and  state  service,  arrayed  themselves  ou  the 
side  of  the  burgher  class,  which  had  always  been  hostile  to  the 
Jews.  This  petty  Shlakhta  bitterly  resented  the  fact  that  the 
royal  revenues  had  been  turned  over  to  Jewish  contractors, 
who,  as  collectors  of  customs  and  taxes,  attained  to  official 
dignity,  and  gradually  forced  their  way  into  the  ranks  of  the 
nobility.  The  income  from  the  collection  of  the  revenues  and 
the  influence  connected  with  it  this  Shlakhta  regarded  as 
its  inalienable  prerogative.  The  clergy  again  saw  in  this 
enhancement  of  Jewish  influence  a  serious  menace  to  the 
Catholic  faith,  while  the  urban  estates  had  a  vital  interest 
in  limiting  the  commercial  rights  of  the  Jev.'s. 

At  the  Piotrkov  Diet  of  1638  the  anti-Jewish  agitation  was 
carried  on  with  considerable  success.  It  resulted  in  the  adop- 
tion of  a  statute,  or  a  "  constitution,"  containing  a  separate 
Jewish  section,  in  which  the  old  canonical  laws  cropped  out: 

We  hereby  prescribe  and  decree — it  is  stated  in  that  section — 
that  from  now  on  and  for  all  future  time  all  those  who  manage 

(pronounced  suyniik),  i.  e.  little  Diet,  or  Dietine.  Deputies  of  these 
Dietines  met  at  the  respective  sejms  (pronounced  saym),  or  Diets, 
of  one  of  the  three  large  provinces  of  Poland:  Great  Poland,  Little 
Poland,  and  Red  Russia.  The  national  sejm.  representing  the 
whole  of  Poland,  came  into  being  towards  the  end  of  the  fifteenth 
century.  Beginning  with  1573  It  met  regularly  every  two  years 
for  six  weeks  in  Warsaw  or  in  Grodno.  Before  the  convocation 
of  this  national  all-Polish  Parliament,  all  local  Dietines  assembled 
on  one  and  the  same  day  to  give  instructions  to  the  deputies  elected 
to  it.] 


78  THE  JEWS   IN  RUSSIA  AND   POLAND 

our  revenues  must  unconditionally  be  members  of  the  landed 
nobility,  and  persons  professing  the  Christian  faith.  .  .  .  We  or- 
dain for  inviolable  observance  that  no  Jews  shall  be  intrusted  [in 
the  capacity  of  contractors]  with  the  collection  of  revenues  of  any 
kind.  For  it  is  unworthy  and  contrary  to  divine  right  that  persons 
of  this  description  should  be  admitted  to  any  kind  of  honors  or 
to  the  discharge  of  public  functions  among  Christian  people. 

It  is  further  decreed  that  the  Jews  have  no  right  of  un- 
restricted commerce,  and  can  do  no  business  in  any  locality, 
except  witli  the  special  permission  of  the  king  or  by  agree- 
ment with  the  magistracies;  in  the  villages  they  are  forbidden 
to  trade  altogether.  Pawnbroking  and  money-lending  on  the 
part  of  Jews  are  hedged  about  by  a  series  of  oppressive  regu- 
lations. The  capstone  of  the  Piotrkov  "  constitution  "  is  the 
following  clause : 

Whereas  the  Jews,  disregarding  the  ancient  regulations,  have 
thrown  off  the  marks  by  which  they  were  distinguishable  from 
the  Christians,  and  have  arrogated  to  themselves  a  form  of  dress 
which  closely  resembles  that  of  the  Christians,  so  that  it  is  im- 
possible to  recognize  them,  be  it  resolved  for  permanent  observ- 
ance: that  the  Jews  of  our  realm,  all  and  sundry,  in  whatever 
place  they  happen  to  be  found,  shall  wear  special  marks,  to  wit,  a 
barret,  or  hat,  or  some  other  headgear  of  yellow  cloth.  Exception 
is  to  be  made  in  favor  of  travelers,  who,  while  on  the  road,  shall 
be  permitted  to  discard  or  conceal  marks  of  this  kind. 

The  fine  for  violating  this  regulation  is  fixed  at  one  gulden. 
The  only  articles  of  the  "  constitution "  of  1538  which 
had  serious  consequences  for  the  Jews  of  the  Crown — the 
Jews  of  Lithuania  were  not  affected  by  these  regulation.s — 
were  those  barring  them  from  tax-farming  and  subjecting 
them  to  commercial  restrictions.  The  canonical  law  concern- 
ing a  distinctive  headgear  was  more  in  the  nature  of  a  demon- 
stration than  a  serious  legal  enactment,  since  compliance  with 


THE  CENTER  IN  POLAND  AT  ITS  ZENITH  79 

it,  owing  to  the  high  state  of  culture  among  the  Polish  Jews 
and  their  important  role  in  the  economic  life  of  the  country, 
was  a  matter  of  impossibility.  Behind  this  regulation  lurks 
the  hand  of  the  Catholic  clergy,  which  was  alarmed  at  that 
time  by  the  initial  successes  of  the  Eeformation  in  Poland, 
and  was  in  fear  that  the  influence  of  Judaism  might  enhance 
the  progress  of  the  heresy.  The  excited  imagination  of  the 
clerical  fanatics  perceived  signs  of  a  "  Jewish  propaganda  "  in 
the  rationalistic  doctrine  of  "  Anti-Trinitarianism,"  which  was 
then  making  its  appearance,  denying  the  dogma  of  the  Holy 
Trinity.  The  specter  of  a  rising  sect  of  "  Judaizers  "  haunted 
the  guardians  of  the  Church.  One  occurrence  in  particular 
engendered  tremendous  excitement  among  the  inhabitants  of 
Cracow.  A  Catholic  woman  of  that  city,  Catherine  Zaleshovska 
by  name,  the  wife  of  an  alderman,  and  four  score  years  of 
age,  was  convicted  of  denying  the  fundamental  dogmas  of 
Christianity  and  adhering  secretly  to  Jewish  doctrines.  The 
Bishop  of  Cracow,  Peter  Gamrat,  having  made  futile  endeavors 
to  bring  Catherine  back  into  the  fold  of  the  Church,  condemned 
her  to  death.  The  unfortunate  woman  was  burned  at  the  stake 
on  the  market-place  of  Cracow  in  1539. 

The  following  description  of  this  event  was  penned  by  an 
eye-witness,  the  Polish  writer  Lucas  Gurnitzki : 

The  priest  Gamrat,  Bishop  of  Cracow,  assembled  all  canons 
and  collegiates  in  order  to  examine  her  [Catherine  Zaleshovska, 
who  had  been  accused  of  "  Judaizing  "]  as  to  her  principles  of 
faith.  When,  in  accordance  with  our  creed,  she  was  asked  whether 
she  believed  in  Almighty  God,  the  Creator  of  heaven  and  earth, 
she  replied:  "  I  believe  in  God,  who  created  all  that  we  see  and 
do  not  see,  who  cannot  be  comprehended  by  the  human  reason, 
who  poureth  forth  His  bounty  over  man  and  over  all  things  in  the 
universe."    "  Do  you  believe  in  His  only  begotten  Son,  Jesus  Christ, 

6 


80  THE  JEWS   IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

who  was  conceived  by  the  Holy  Gliost? "  she  was  asked.  She 
answered:  "The  Lord  God  has  neither  wife  nor  son,  nor  does 
He  need  them.  For  sons  are  needed  by  those  who  die,  but  God 
is  eternal,  and  since  He  was  not  born,  it  is  impossible  that  He 
should  die.  It  is  we  whom  He  considers  His  sons,  and  His  sons 
are  those  who  walk  in  His  paths."  Here  the  collegiates  shouted: 
"  Thou  utterest  evil,  thou  miserable  one!  Bethink  thyself!  Surely 
there  are  prophecies  that  the  Lord  would  send  His  Son  into  the 
world  to  be  crucified  for  our  sins,  in  order  that  we,  having  been  dis- 
obedient from  the  days  of  our  ancestor  Adam,  may  be  reconciled 
to  God  the  Father?  "  A  great  deal  more  was  said  by  the  learned 
men  to  the  apostate  woman,  but  the  more  they  spoke,  the  more 
stubborn  was  she  in  her  contention  that  God  was  not  and  could 
not  be  born  as  a  human  being.  When  it  was  found  impossible  to 
detach  her  from  her  Jewish  beliefs,  it  was  decided  to  convict  her 
of  blasphemy.  She  was  taken  to  the  city  jail,  and  a  few  days  later 
she  was  burned.    She  went  to  lier  death  without  the  slightest  fear. 

The  well-known  eonlcnipurary  chronicler  Bielski  expresses 
himself  similarly :  "  She  went  to  her  death  as  if  it  were  a 
wedding." 

During  the  same  time  there  wore  rumors  afloat  to  the  effect 
that  in  various  places  in  Poland,  particularly  in  the  province 
of  Cracow,  many  Christians  were  embracing  Judaism,  and, 
after  undergoing  circumcision,  were  fleeing  for  greater  safety 
to  Lithuania,  where  they  were  sheltered  by  the  local  Jews. 
When  the  rumor  reached  the  King,  he  dispatched  two  commis- 
sioners to  Lithuania  to  direct  a  strict  investigation.  The 
officers  of  the  King  proceeded  with  excessive  ardor;  they 
raided  Jewish  homes,  and  stopped  travelers  on  the  road,  mak- 
ing arrests  and  holding  cross-examinations.  The  inquiry 
failed  to  reveal  the  presence  of  Judaizing  sectarians  in  Lithu- 
ania, though  it  caused  the  Jews  considerable  trouble  and  alarm 
(1539). 


THE  CENTER  IN  POLAND  AT  ITS  ZENITH  81 

Scarcely  had  this  investigation  been  closed  when  the  Lithu- 
anian Jews  were  faced  by  another  charge.  Many  of  them  Avere 
said  to  be  on  the  point  of  leaving  the  country,  and,  acting  with 
the  knowledge  and  co-operation  of  the  Sultan,  intended  to 
oniigrate  to  Turkey,  accompanied  by  the  Christians  who  had 
been  converted  to  Jiulaism.  It  was  even  rumored  that  the 
Jews  had  already  succeeded  in  dispatching  a  party  of  circum- 
cised Christian  children  and  adults  across  the  Moldavian  fron- 
tier. The  King  gave  orders  for  a  new  investigation,  which 
was  marked,  like  the  preceding  one,  by  acts  of  lawlessness  and 
violence.  The  Jews  were  in  fear  that  the  King  might  lend  an 
ear  to  these  accusations  and  withdraw  his  protection  from 
them.  Accordingly  Jews  of  Brest,  Grodno,  and  other  Lithu- 
anian cities,  hastened  to  send  a  deputation  to  King  Sigis- 
mund,  which  solemnly  assured  him  that  all  the  rumors  and 
accusations  concerning  them  were  mere  slander,  that  the 
Lithuanian  Jews  were  faithfully  devoted  to  their  country, 
that  they  had  no  intention  to  emigrate  to  Turkey,  and,  finally, 
that  they  had  never  tried  to  convert  Christians  to  their  faith. 
At  the  same  time  they  made  complaints  about  the  insults  and 
brutalities  which  had  been  inflicted  upon  them,  pointing  to 
the  detrimental  effect  of  the  investigation  on  the  trade  of  the 
country.  The  assertions  of  the  deputation  were  borne  out 
by  the  official  inquiry,  and  Sigismund,  returning  his  favor 
to  the  Jews,  cleared  them  of  all  suspicion,  and  promised  hence- 
forward not  to  trouble  them  on  wholesale  charges  unsupported 
by  evidence.  This  pledge  was  embodied  in  a  special  charter, 
a  sort  of  habeas  corpus,  granted  by  the  King  to  the  Jews  of 
Lithuania  in  1540. 

All  this,  however,  did  not  discourage  the  Catholic  clergy, 
who,  under  the  leadership  of  Bishop  Gamrat,  continued  their 


82  THE  JEWS   IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

agitation  against  the  hated  Jews.  They  incited  pul)lic  opinion 
against  them  by  means  of  slanderous  books,  written  in  medieval 
style  {De  stupendis  errorihus  Judaeorum,  1541;  De  Sanctis 
interfedis  a  Judaeis,  1543).  The  Church  Synod  of  1542 
assembled  in  Piotrkov  issued  the  following  "  constitution  " : 

The  Synod,  taking  into  consideration  the  many  dangers  that 
confront  the  Christians  and  the  Church  from  the  large  number  of 
Jews  who,  having  been  driven  from  the  neighboring  countries, 
have  been  admitted  into  Poland,  and  unscrupulously  combine  holi- 
ness with  ungodliness,  has  passed  the  following  resolution:  Lest 
the  great  concentration  of  Jews  in  the  country  lead,  as  must  be 
apprehended,  to  even  worse  consequences,  his  Majesty  the  King  be 
petitioned  as  follows:  1.  That  in  the  diocese  of  Gnesen  and  particu- 
larly in  the  city  of  Cracow '  the  number  of  Jews  be  reduced  to  a 
fixed  norm,  such  as  the  district  set  aside  for  them  can  accommodate. 
2.  That  in  all  other  places  where  the  Jews  did  not  reside  in 
former  times  they  be  denied  the  right  of  settlement,  and  be  for- 
bidden to  buy  houses  from  Christians,  those  already  bought  to  be 
returned  to  their  former  owners.  3.  That  the  new  synagogues,  even 
those  erected  by  them  in  the  city  of  Cracow,  be  ordered  to  be 
demolished.  4.  Whereas  the  Church  suffers  the  Jews  for  the  sole 
purpose  of  recalling  to  our  minds  the  tortures  of  our  Saviour, 
their  number  shall  in  no  circumstances  increase.  Moreover,  ac- 
cording to  the  regulations  of  the  holy  canons,  they  shall  be  per- 
mitted only  to  repair  their  old  synagogues  but  not  erect  new  ones. 

This  is  followed  by  seven  more  clauses  containing  various 
restrictions.  The  Jews  are  forbidden  to  keep  Christian  servants 
in  their  houses,  particularly  nursery-maids,  to  act  as  stewards 
of  estates  belonging  to  nobles  ("lest  those  w^ho  ought  to  be 
the  slaves  of  Christians  should  thereby  acquire  dominion  and 
jurisdiction  over  them"),  to  work  and  to  trade  on  Catholic 
holidays,  and  to  offer  their  goods  publicly  for  sale  even  on  week- 

['  Gnesen  as  seat  of  the  Primate;  Cracow  as  capital.] 


THE  CENTER  IN  POLAND  AT  ITS  ZENITH  83 

days.    It  goes  without  saying  that  the  rule  prescribing  a  dis- 
tinguishing Jewish  dress  is  not  neglected. 

This  whole  anti-Jewish  fabric  of  laws,  which  the  members  of 
the  Synod  decided  to  submit  to  the  King,  failed  to  receive 
legal  sanction.  Still  the  Catholic  clergy  was  for  a  long  time 
guided  by  it  in  its  policy  towards  the  Jews,  a  policy,  needless 
to  say,  of  intolerance  and  gross  prejudices.  These  restrictions 
were  the  pia  desideria  of  priests  and  monks,  some  of  which  were 
realized  during  the  subsequent  Catholic  reaction. 

3.    LiBEEALISM  AND  REACTION  IN  THE  EeIGNS  OF  SiGlSMUND 

Augustus  and  Stephen  Batoey 

Sigismund  I.'s  successor,  the  cultured  and  to  some  extent 
liberal-minded  Sigismund  II.  Augustus  (1548-1572),  followed 
in  his  relations  with  the  Jews  the  same  principles  of  toleration 
and  non-interference  by  which  he  was  generally  guided  in  his 
attitude  towards  the  non-Christian  and  non-Catholic  citizens 
of  Poland.  In  the  first  year  of  his  reign  Sigismund  II.,  com- 
plying with  the  request  of  the  Jews  of  Great  Poland,  ratified, 
at  the  general  Polish  Diet  held  at  Piotrkov,  the  old  liberal 
statute  of  Casimir  IV.  In  the  preamble  of  this  enactment  the 
King  declares  that  he  confirms  the  rights  and  privileges  of  the 
Jews  on  the  same  grounds  as  the  special  privileges  of  the  other 
estates,  in  other  words,  by  virtue  of  his  oath  to  uphold  the 
constitution.  Sigismund  Augustus  considerably  amplified 
and  solidified  the  self-government  of  the  Jewish  communities. 
He  bestowed  large  administrative  and  judicial  powers  upon  the 
rabbis  and  Kahal  elders,  sanctioning  the  application  of  "  Jew- 
ish law "  (i.  e.  of  Biblical  and  Talmudical  law)  in  civil 
and  partly  even  criminal  cases  between  Jews  (1551).  In  the 
general  voyevoda  courts,  in  which  cases  between  Jews  and 


^^  THE  JEWS   IN  RUSSIA   AND  POLAND 

Christians  were  tried,  the  presence  of  Jewish  "  seniors,"  i.  e. 
of  duly  elected  Kahal  elders,  was  required  (1556).  This  lia- 
bility of  the  Jews  to  the  royal  or  voyevoda  courts  had  long 
constituted  one  of  their  important  privileges,  since  it  exempted 
them  from  the  municipal,  or  ma <^ist rates'  courts,  which  were 
just  as  hostile  to  them  as  the  magistracies  themselves. 

This  prerogative — the  guarantee  of  greater  impartiality  on 
the  part  of  the  royal  court — was  limited  to  the  Jews  residing 
in  the  royal  cities  and  villages,  and  did  not  extend  to  those 
living  on  the  estates  of  the  nobles  or  in  the  townships  owned 
by  them.  Sigismund  I.  had  decreed  that  "  the  nobles  hav- 
ing Jews  in  their  towns  and  villages  may  enjoy  all  the 
advantages  to  be  derived  from  them,  but  must  also  try  their 
cases.  For  we  [the  King],  not  deriving  any  advantages  from 
such  Jews,  are  not  obliged  to  secure  justice  for  them  "  (1539). 
Sigismund  Augustus  now  enacted  similarly  that  the  Jews 
living  on  hereditary  Shlakhta  estates  should  be  liable  to  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  "  hereditary  owner,"  not  to  that  of  the 
royal  representatives,  the  voyevoda  and  sub-voyevoda.  As  for 
the  other  royal  privileges,  they  were  extended  to  the  Jews  of 
this  category  only  on  condition  of  their  paying  the  special 
Jewish  head-tax  to  the  King  (1549).  The  split  between 
royalty  and  Shlakhta,  which  became  conspicuous  in  the  reign 
of  Sigismund  Augustus,  had  already  begun  to  undermine  the 
system  of  royal  patronage,  more  and  more  weakened  as  time 
went  on. 

The  relations  between  the  Jews  and  the  "  third  estate,"  the 
burghers,  did  not  improve  in  the  reign  of  Sigismund  Augustus, 
but  they  assumed  a  more  definite  shape.  The  two  competing 
agencies,  the  magistracies  and  the  Kahals,  regulated  their 
mutual  relations  by  means  of  compacts  and  agreements.     In 


THE  CENTER  IN  POLAND  AT  ITS  ZENITH  85 

some  cities,  such  as  Cracow  and  Posen,  these  compacts  were 
designed  to  safeguard  the  boundaries  of  the  ghetto,  outside 
of  which  the  Jews  had  no  right  to  live ;  in  Posen  the  Jews  were 
even  forbidden  to  increase  the  number  of  Jewish  houses  over 
and  above  a  fixed  norm  (49),  with  the  result  that  they  were 
obliged  to  build  tall  houses,  with  several  stories.  In  other 
cities,  among  wliich  was  included  the  city  of  Warsaw/  the 
magistracies  managed  to  obtain  the  so-called  privilege  de  non 
iolerandis  Judaeis,  i.  e.  the  right  of  either  not  admitting  the 
Jews  to  settle  anew,  and  confining  those  already  settled  to 
special  sections  of  the  city,  away  from  the  principal  streets,  or 
keeping  the  Jews  away  from  the  city  altogether,  allowing 
only  the  merchants  to  come  on  business  and  stay  there  for  a 
few  days.  However,  in  the  majority  of  Polish  cities  the  pro- 
tection of  the  King  secured  for  the  Jews  equal  rights  with  the 
other  townspeople.  For,  as  one  of  the  royal  edicts  puts  it,  "  in- 
asmuch as  the  Jews  carry  all  burdens  in  the  same  way  as  the 
burghers,  their  positions  must  be  alike  in  everything,  except 
in  religion  and  jurisdiction.''  In  some  places  the  King  even 
went  so  far  as  to  forbid  the  liokling  of  the  weekly  market-day 
on  Saturday,  to  safeguard  the  commercial  interests  of  the 
Jews,  who  refused  to  do  business  on  their  day  of  rest. 

With  all  the  estates  of  Poland  the  Jews  managed  reasonably 
to  agTee  save  only  with  the  Catholic  clergy.  This  implacable 
foe  of  Judaism  doubled  his  efforts  as  soon  as  the  signal  from 
Pome  was  given  to  start  a  reaction  against  the  growing  heresy 
01  Protestantism  and  to  combat  all  other  forms  of  non-Catholic 

[1  Warsaw  was  originally  the  capital  of  the  independent  Princi- 
pality of  Mazovia.  After"  the  incorporation  of  Mazovia  into  the 
Polish  Empire,  in  1526,  Warsaw  emerged  from  its  obscurity  and 
in  the  latter  part  of  the  sixteenth  century  became  the  capital  of 
united  Poland  and  Lithuania,  taking  the  place  of  Cracow  and 
Vilna.] 


86  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

belief.  The  policy  of  Paul  IV.,  the  inquisitor  on  the  throne 
of  St.  Peter,  found  an  echo  in  Poland.  The  Papal  Nuncio 
Lippomano,  having  arrived  from  Rome,  conceived  the  idea  of 
firing  the  religious  zeal  of  the  Catholics  by  one  of  those  bloody 
spectacles  which  the  inquisitorial  Church  was  wont  to  arrange 
occasionally  ad  maiorem  Dei  gloriam.  A  rumor  was  set  afloat 
that  a  poor  woman  in  Sokhachev,  Dorothy  Lazhentzka  by 
name,  had  sold  to  the  Jews  of  the  town  the  holy  wafer  re- 
ceived by  her  during  communion,  and  that  the  wafer  was 
stabbed  by  the  "infidels"'  until  it  began  to  bleed.  By  order 
of  the  Bishop  of  Khelm  three  Jews  who  were  charged  with 
this  sacrilege  and  their  accomplice  Dorothy  Lazhentzka  were 
thrown  into  prison,  ]mt  on  the  rack,  and  finally  sentenced  to 
death.  On  learning  of  these  happenings,  the  King  sent  orders 
to  the  Starosta  of  Sokhachev  to  stop  the  execution  of  the 
death  sentence,  but  the  clergy  hastened  to  carry  out  the 
verdict,'  and  the  alleged  blasphemers  were  burned  at  the  stake 
(1556).  Before  their  death  the  martyred  Jews  made  the  fol- 
lowing declaration : 

We  have  never  stabbed  the  host,  because  we  do  not  believe  that 
the  host  is  the  Divine  body  (nos  enim  nequaquam  credimus 
hostiae  inesse  Dei  corpus),  knowing  that  God  has  no  body  nor 
blood.  We  believe,  as  did  our  forefathers,  that  the  Messiah  is 
not  God,  but  His  messenger.  We  also  know  from  experience  that 
there  can  be  no  blood  in  flour. 

These  protestations  of  a  monotheistic  faith  were  silenced 
by  the  executioner,  who  stopped  "  the  mouths  of  the  criminals 
with  burning  torches." 

Sigismund  Augustus  was  shocked  by  these  revolting  proceed- 
ings, which  had  been  engineered  by  the  Nuncio  Lippomano.  He 

1  According  to  another  version,  they  forged  the  contents  of  the 
royal  warrant. 


THE  CENTER  IN  POLAND  AT  ITS  ZENITH  87 

was  quick  to  grasp  that  at  the  bottom  of  the  absurd  rumor 
concerning  the  "  wounded  "  host  lay  a  "  pious  fraud,"  the 
desire  to  demonstrate  the  truth  of  the  Eucharist  dogma  in  its 
Catholic  formulation  (the  bread  of  communion  as  the  actual 
body  of  Christ),  which  was  rejected  by  the  Calvinists  and  the 
extreme  wing  of  the  Eeformation.  "  I  am  shocked  by  this 
hideous  villainy,"  the  King  exclaimed  in  a  fit  of  religious  skep- 
ticism, "  nor  am  I  sufficiently  devoid  of  common  sense  to  be- 
lieve that  there  could  be  any  blood  in  the  host."  Lippomano's 
conduct  aroused  in  particular  the  indignation  of  the  Polish 
Protestants,  who  on  dogmatic  grounds  could  not  give  credence 
to  the  medieval  fable  concerning  miracle-working  hosts. 
All  this  did  not  prevent  the  enemies  of  the  Jews  from  ex- 
ploiting the  Sokhachev  case  in  the  interest  of  an  anti-Jewish 
agitation.  It  was  in  all  likelihood  due  to  this  agitation  that 
the  anti-Jewish  "  constitution  "  adopted  by  the  Diet  of  1538 
was,  at  the  insistence  of  numerous  deputies,  confirmed  by  the 
Diets  of  1563  and  1565. 

The  articles  of  this  anti-Semitic  "  constitution  "  were  also 
embodied  in  the  "  Lithuanian  Statute  "  promulgated  in  1566. 
This  "  statute "  interdicts  the  Jews  from  wearing  the  same 
style  of  clothes  as  the  Christians  and  altogether  from  dressing 
smartly,  from  owning  serfs  or  keeping  domestics  of  the  Chris- 
tian faith,  and  from  holding  office  among  Christians,  the 
last  two  restrictions  being  extended  to  the  Tatars  and  other 
"  infidels."  The  medieval  libels  found  a  favorable  soil  even 
in  Lithuania.  In  1564  a  Jew  was  executed  in  Bielsk,  on  the 
charge  of  having  killed  a  Christian  girl,  though  the  \mfortu- 
nate  victim  loudly  proclaimed  his  innocence  from  the  steps 
of  the  scafl^old.  Nor  were  attempts  wanting  to  manufacture 
similar  trials  in  other  Lithuanian  localities.    To  put  an  end  to 


^8  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

the  agitation  fostered  by  fanatics  and  obscurantists,  the  King 
issued  two  decrees,  in  15G4  and  1506,  in  which  the  local 
authorities  were  strictly  enjoined  not  to  institute  proceedings 
against  Jews  on  the  charge  of  ritual  murder  or  desecration  of 
hosts.  Sigisniund  Augustus  declares  that  experience  and  papal 
pronouncements  liad  proved  the  groundlessness  of  such 
charges;  that,  in  accordance  with  ancient  Jewish  privileges, 
all  such  charges  must  be  substantiated  by  the  testimony  of 
four  Christian  and  three  Jewish  witnesses,  and  that,  finally, 
the  jurisdiction  in  all  such  cases  belongs  to  the  King  himself 
and  his  Council  at  the  General  Diet. 

Soon  afterwards,  in  1569,  the  agreement  known  as  the 
"  Union  of  Lublin  "  was  concluded  between  Lithuania  and  the 
Crown,  or  Poland  proper,  providing  for  closer  administrative 
and  legislative  co-operation  between  the  two  countries.  This 
resulted  in  the  co-ordination  of  the  constitutional  legislation 
for  both  parts  of  the  "  Republic  V  which,  in  turn,  affected 
injuriously  the  status  of  the  Jews  of  Lithuania.  The  latter 
country  was  gradually  drawn  into  the  general  current  of 
Polish  politics,  and  hence  drifted  away  from  the  patriaichal 
order  of  things,  which  had  built  up  the  prosperity  of  the  Jews 
in  the  days  of  Vitovt. 

Sigismund  Augustus  died  in  1572,  three  years  after  the  con- 
clusion of  the  Union  of  Lublin.  The  Jews  had  good  reason 
to  mourn  the  loss  of  this  King,  who  had  been  their  principal 
protector.     His  death  marks  the  extinction  of  the  Yaghello 

['  With  the  gradual  weakening  of  the  royal  power,  which,  after 
the  extinction  of  the  Yaghello  dynasty,  in  1572,  was  transformed 
into  an  elective  office,  the  favorite  designation  for  the  Polish  Em- 
pire came  to  be  Rzccz  (pronounced  Zhech)  Pospolita,  a  literal  ren- 
dering of  the  Latin  Res  Ptiblica.  The  term  comprises  Poland  as 
well  as  Lithuania,  which,  in  15(59,  had  been  united  in  one  Empire] 


THE  CENTER   IN  POLAND  AT  ITS  ZENITH  y9 

dynasty,  aud  a  new  cliapter  betjins  in  the  history  of  Poland, 
"  the  elective  period,"  when  the  kings  are  chosen  by  vote.  After 
a  protracted  interregnum,  the  Shlakhta  elected  the  French 
prince  Henry  of  Valois  (1574).  one  of  the  instigators  of  the 
Massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew.  This  election  greatly  alarmed 
the  Jews  and  the  liberal-minded  Poles,  who  anticipated  a  recru- 
descence of  clericalism;  but  their  fears  were  soon  allayed. 
After  a  few  months'  stay  in  Poland,  Henry  fled  to  his  native 
land  to  accept  the  French  crown,  on  the  death  of  his  brother 
Charles  IX.  The  throne  of  Poland  fell,  by  popular  vote, 
to  Stephen  Batory  (1576-1586),  the  valorous  and  enlightened 
Hungarian  duke.  His  brief  reign,  which  marks  the  end  of 
the  "  golden  age  *'  of  Polish  history,  was  signalized  by  several 
acts  of  justice  in  relation  to  the  Jews.  In  1576  Stephen 
Batory  issued  two  edicts,  strictly  forbidding  the  impeachment 
of  Jews  on  the  charge  of  ritual  murder  or  sacrilege,  in  view  of 
the  recognized  falsity  of  these  accusations '  and  the  popular 
disturbances  accompanying  them. 

Stephen  Batory  even  went  one  step  further  in  pursuing  the 
principle,  that  the  Jews,  because  of  their  usefulness  to  the 
country  on  account  of  their  commercial  activity,  had  a  claim  to 
the  same  treatment  as  the  corresponding  Christian  estates.  In 
ratifying  the  old  charters,  he  added  a  number  of  privileges, 
bearing  in  particular  on  the  freedom  of  commerce.  The  King 
directed  the  voyevodas  to  protect  the  legitimate  interests  of  the 
JeW'S  against  the  encroachments  of  the  magistracies  and  trade- 
unions,  who  hampered  them  in  every  possible  manner  in  their 
pursuit  of  trades  and  handicrafts. 

Stephen  Batory  intervened  on  behalf  of  the  Jews  of  Posen, 
who  had  long  been  oppressed  by  a  hostile  magistracy.    Setting 

*  They  are  referred  to  in  his  edicts  as  calumniae. 


90  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

aside  the  draconian  regulations  of  the  city  fathers,  the  commer- 
cial rivals  of  the  Jews,  he  permitted  the  latter  to  hire  business 
premises  in  all  parts  of  the  city  and  ply  their  trade  even  on  the 
days  of  the  Christian  festivals.  Anticipating  the  possibility 
of  retaliator}'  measures  on  the  part  of  the  townspeople,  the 
King  impressed  upon  the  magistracy  the  duty  of  safeguarding 
the  inviolability  of  life  and  property  in  the  city,  at  the  risk  of 
incurring  the  severest  penalties  in  the  case  of  neglect  (15TT). 
All  these  warnings,  however,  were  powerless  to  avert  a  catas- 
trophe. Three  months  after  the  promulgation  of  the  royal 
edict  the  Jewish  quarter  in  Poscn  was  attacked  by  the  mob, 
which  looted  Jewish  propert}'  and  killed  a  number  of  Jews. 
Ostensibly  the  riot  was  started  because  of  the  refusal  of  the 
Jews  to  allow  one  of  their  coreligionists,  who  was  on  the  point 
of  accepting  baptism,  to  meet  his  wife.  In  reality  this  was 
nothing  but  a  pretext.  The  attack  had  been  prepared  by  the 
Christian  merchants,  who  could  not  reconcile  themselves  to 
the  extension  of  the  commercial  rights  of  their  competitors. 
Batory  imposed  a  heavy  fine  on  the  Posen  magistracy  for 
having  failed  to  stop  the  disorders.  Only  when  the  members 
of  the  magistracy  declared  under  oath  that  they  had  been 
entirely  ignorant  of  the  plot  was  the  fine  revoked. 

As  far  as  the  Jews  are  concerned,  Stephen  Batory  remained 
loyal  to  the  traditions  of  a  more  liberal  age,  at  a  time  when 
the  Polish  populace  was  already  inoculated  with  the  ideas  of 
the  "  Catholic  reaction  "  imported  from  Western  Europe — 
ideas  which  in  other  respects  the  King  himself  was  unable  to 
resist.  It  was  during  his  reign  that  the  Jesuits,  Peter  Skarga 
and  otliers,  made  their  appearance  as  an  active,  organized 
body.  Batory  extended  his  patronage  to  them,  and  intrusted 
them  with  the  management  of  the  academy  established  by  him 


THE  CENTER  IN  POLAND  AT  ITS  ZENITH  91 

at  Vilna.  Was  it  possible  for  the  King  to  foresee  all  the  evil, 
darkness,  and  intolerance  which  these  Jesuit  schools  would 
spread  all  over  Poland  ?  Could  it  have  occurred  to  him  that  in 
these  seats  of  learning,  which  soon  monopolized  the  education 
of  the  ruling  as  well  as  the  middle  classes,  one  of  the  chief 
subjects  of  instruction  would  be  a  systematic  course  in  Jew- 
baiting  ? 

4.  Shlakhta  and  Eoyalty  in  the  Keigns  of 
sigismund  iii.  and  vladislav  iv. 

The  results  of  the  upheaval  which  accompanied  the  extinc- 
tion of  the  Yaghello  dynasty  assumed  definite  shape  under  the 
first  two  kings  of  the  Swedish  Vasa  dynasty,  Sigismund  III. 
(1588-1632)  and  Vladislav  IV.  (1632-1648).  The  elective 
character  of  royalty  made  the  latter  dependent  on  the  Shlakhta, 
which  practically  ruled  the  country,  subordinating  parliamen- 
tary legislation  to  the  aristocratic  and  agricultural  interests 
of  their  estate,  and  almost  monopolizing  the  posts  of  voyevodas, 
starostas,  and  other  important  officials.  At  the  same  time  the 
activity  of  the  Jesuits  strengthened  the  influence  of  clerical- 
ism in  all  departments  of  life.  To  eradicate  Protestantism,  to 
oppress  the  Greek  Orthodox  "  peasant  Church,'*  and  to  reduce 
the  Jews  to  the  level  of  an  ostracized  caste  of  outlaws — such 
was  the  program  of  the  Catholic  reaction  in  Poland. 

To  attain  these  endsdraconian  measures  were  adopted  against 
the  Evangelists  and  Arians.*    The  members  of  the  Greek  Ortho- 

[^  The  Arian  heresy,  as  modified  and  preached  by  Faustus  Socinus 
(1539-1604),  an  Italian  who  settled  in  Poland,  became  a  powerful 
factor  in  the  Polish  intellectual  life  of  that  period.  Because  of  its 
liberal  tendency,  this  doctrine  appealed  in  particular  to  the  edu- 
cated classes,  and  its  adherents,  called  Socinians,  were  largely 
recruited  from  the  ranks  of  the  Shlakhta.  Under  Sigismund  III.  a 
strong  reaction  set  in,  culminating  in  the  law  passed  by  the  Diet  of 
1658,  according  to  which  all  "  Arians  "  were  to  leave  the  country 
within  two  years.] 


[)•)  THE  JEWS   IN  RUSSIA   AND   POLAND 

(lox  Church  were  rorced  a^rainst  their  will  into  a  union  with  the 
Catholics,  and  the  rights  of  the  "  dissidents,"  or  non-conform- 
ists, were  constantly  curtailed.  The  Jesuits,  who  managed  to 
obtain  control  over  the  education  of  the  growing  generation, 
inoculated  the  Polish  people  with  the  virus  of  clericalism. 
Tile  less  the  zealots  of  the  Church  had  reason  to  expect  the 
conversion  of  the  Jews,  the  more  did  they  despise  and  humili- 
ate them.  And  if  they  did  not  altogether  succeed  in  restoring 
the  medieval  order  of  things,  it  was  no  doubt  due  to  the 
fact  that  the  structure  of  the  Polish  state,  with  its  irrepress- 
ible conflict  of  class  interests,  did  not  allow  any  kind  of 
system  to  take  firm  root.  "  Poland  subsists  on  disorders," 
was  the  boast  of  the  political  leaders  of  the  age.  The  "  golden 
liberty "  of  the  Shlakhta  degenerated  more  and  more.  It 
became  a  weapon  in  the  hands  of  tiie  higher  classes  to  oppress 
the  middle  and  the  lower  classes.  It  led  to  anarchy,  it  under- 
mined the  authority  of  the  Diet,  in  wliich  a  single  member 
could  impose  his  veto  on  the  decision  of  the  whole  assembly 
(the  so-called  liberum  veto),  and  resulted  in  endless  dissensions 
between  the  estates.  On  the  other  hand,  one  must  not  forget 
that,  while  this  division  of  power  was  disastrous  for  Poland, 
the  absolute  concentration  of  power  after  the  pattern  of 
Western  Europe,  in  the  circumstances  then  prevailing,  might 
have  proved  even  more  disastrous.  Under  a  system  of  mon- 
archic absolutism,  Poland  might  have  become,  during  the 
period  of  the  Catholic  reaction,  another  Spain  of  Philip  II. 
Disorder  and  class  strife  saved  the  Polish  people  from  the 
"  order  "  of  the  Inquisition  and  the  consistency  of  autocratic 
hangmen. 

The  championship  of  Jewish  interests  passed  by  degrees  from 
the  hands  of  royalty  into  those  of  the  wealthy  parliamentary 


THE  CENTER  IN  POLAND  AT  ITS  ZENITH  93 

Shlakhta.  Though  more  and  more  permeated  by  clerical  ten- 
dencies, the  fruit  of  Jesuit  schooling,  the  nobility  in  most  cases 
held  its  protecting  hand  over  the  Jews,  to  whom  it  was  tied  by 
the  community  of  economic  interests.  The  Jewish  tax-collector 
in  the  towns  and  townlets,  which  were  privately  owned  by  the 
nobles,  the  Jewish  arendar^  in  the  village,  who  procured  an 
income  for  the  pan '  from  dairying,  milling,  distilling,  liquor- 
selling  and  other  enterprises — they  were  indispensable  to 
the  easy-going  magnate,  who  was  wont  to  let  his  estates  take 
care  of  themselves,  and  while  away  his  time  in  the  capital,  at 
the  court,  in  merry  amusements,  or  at  the  tumultuous  sessions 
of  the  national  and  provincial  assemblies,  where  politics 
were  looked  upon  as  a  form  of  entertainment  rather  than  a 
serious  pursuit.  This  Polish  aristocracy  put  a  check  on  the 
anti-Semitic  endeavors  of  the  clergy,  and  confined  the  oppres- 
sion of  the  Jews  within  certain  limits.  Even  the  devout  Sigis- 
mund  III.,  who  was  subject  to  Jesuit  influence,  continued 
the  traditional  role  of  Jewish  protector.  In  1588,  shortly 
after  his  accession  to  the  throne,  he  confirmed,  at  the  request  of 
the  Jews,  their  right  of  trading  in  the  cities,  though  not 
without  certain  restrictions  which  the  demands  of  the  Chris- 
tian merchants  had  forced  upon  him. 

Nevertheless  the  economic  struggle  in  the  cities  continues 
with  ever-increasing  fury,  manifesting  itself  more  and  more 
in  the  shape  of  malign  religious  fanaticism.  In  many  cities 
the  municipalities  arrogate  to  themselves  judicial  authority 

[*  Arendar,  also  arendator.  from  medieval  Latin  arrendare,  "  to 
rent,"  signifies  in  Polish  and  Russian  a  lessee,  originally  of  a  farm, 
subsequently  of  the  tavern  and,  as  is  seen  in  the  text,  other 
sources  of  revenue  on  the  estate.  These  arendars  being  mostly 
Jews,  the  name,  abbreviated  in  Yiddish  to  randar,  came  prac- 
tically to  mean  "  village  Jew."] 

[-Literally,  lord:  the  lord  of  the  manor,  noble  landowner.] 


94  THE  JEWS   IN  RUSSIA   AND   POLAND 

over  the  Jews — the  authority  of  the  wolves  over  the  sheep — 
contrary  to  the  fuudainent<il  Polish  law,  which  places  all  litiga- 
tion hetween  Jews  and  Christians  under  the  jurisdiction  of 
the  royal  officials,  the  voyevodas  and  starostas.  The  king, 
appealed  to  by  the  injured,  has  frequent  occasion  to  remind 
the  magistracies  that  the  Jews  are  not  to  be  judged  by  the 
Magdeburg  Law,  but  by  common  Polish  law,  in  addition  to 
their  own  rabbinical  courts  for  internal  disputes.  A  pro- 
nouncement of  this  nature  was  issued,  among  others,  by  King 
Sigismund  ITI.,  when  the  Jews  of  Brest  appealed  to  him 
against  the  local  municipality  (1592).  Their  appeal  was  sup- 
ported by  the  head  of  the  Jewish  community,  Saul  Yudich 
(son  of  Judah),  contractor  of  customs  and  other  state  reven- 
ues in  Lithuania,  who  wielded  considerable  influence  at 
the  Polish  court.  He  bore  the  title  of  "  servant  of  the  king," 
and  was  frequently  in  a  position  to  render  important  services 
to  his  coreligionists.'  But  where  the  Jewish  masses  were  not 
fortunate  enough  to  possess  such  powerful  advocates  in  the 
persons  of  the  big  tax-farmers  and  "  servants  of  the  king,'' 
their  legitimate  interests  were  frequently  trampled  upon.  The 
burghers  of  Vilna,  in  their  desire  to  dislodge  their  Jewish  com- 
petitors from  the  city,  did  not  stop  at  open  violence.  They 
demolished  the  synagogue,  and  sacked  the  Jewish  residences 
in  the  houses  owned  by  the  Shlakhta  (1592).  In  Kiev,  where 
the  Jews  had  been  settled  in  the  Old  Russian  period,'  the 

'  There  is  reason  to  believe  that  he  is  the  hero  of  the  legendary 
story  according  to  which  an  influential  Polish  Jew  by  the  name 
of  Saul  Wahl,  a  favorite  of  Prince  Radziwill,  was,  during  an 
interregnum,  proclaimed  Polish  king  by  the  Shlakhta,  and  reigned 
for  one  night. 

[-  See  pp.  29  et  seq.  Kiev  was  captured  by  the  Lithuanians  in 
1320,  and  remained,  through  the  union  of  Lithuania  and  Poland, 
a  part  of  the  Polish  Empire  until  1654,  when,  together  with  the 
province  of  Little  Russia,  it  was  ceded  to  Muscovy.] 


THE  CENTER  IN  POLAND  AT  ITS  ZENITH  95 

burghers  were  endeavoring  to  secure  from  the  King  the  privi- 
lege de  noil  tolerandis  Judaeis  (1619). 

The  hostility  of  the  burgher  class,  which  was  made  up  of 
Germans  to  a  considerable  extent,  manifested  itself  with  par- 
ticular intensity  in  the  old  hotbed  of  anti-Semitism,  in  Posen. 
Attacks  on  the  Jewish  quarter  on  the  part  of  the  street  mob  and 
"  lawful "  persecutions  on  the  part  of  the  magistracy  and  trade- 
unions  were  a  regular  feature  in  the  life  of  that  city.  In  the 
case  of  several  trades,  as,  for  instance,  in  the  needle  trade,  the 
Jewish  artisans  were  restricted  to  Jewish  customers.  In  1618 
a  painter  employed  to  paint  the  walls  of  the  Posen  town  hall 
drew  all  kinds  of  figures  which  were  extremely  offensive  to  the 
Jews,  and  subjected  them  to  the  ridicule  of  an  idle  street  mob. 
Two  years  later  the  local  clergy  spread  the  rumor,  that  the 
table  on  which  the  famous  three  hosts  had  been  pierced  by  the 
Jews  in  1399  ^  had  been  accidentally  discovered  in  the  house  of 
a  Jew.  The  fictitious  relic  was  transferred  to  the  Church  of 
the  Carmelites  in  a  solemn  procession,  headed  by  the  Bishop 
and  the  whole  local  priesthood.  This  demonstration  helped  to 
inflame  the  populace  against  the  Jews.  The  crowd,  fed  on 
such  spectacles,  lost  the  last  sparks  of  humanity.  The  scholars 
of  the  Jesuit  colleges  frequently  invaded  the  Jewish  quarter, 
making  sport  of  the  Jews  and  committing  all  kinds  of  ex- 
cesses, in  strange  contradiction  to  the  precept  of  the  Gospels, 
to  love  their  enemies,  which  they  were  taught  in  their  schools. 

Based  on  malicious  fabrications,  ritual  murder  trials  become 
endemic  during  this  period,  and  assume  an  ominous,  inquisito- 
rial character.  Cases  of  tliis  nature  are  given  great  prominence, 
and  are  tried  by  the  highest  Polish  law  court,  the  Crown 

*  See  p.  55. 
7 


96  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

Tribunal,'  without  any  of  the  safeguards  of  impartiality  which 
had  been  provided  for  such  cases  by  the  ancient  charters  of  the 
Polish  kings,  and  had  been  more  recently  reaffirmed  by  Stephen 
Batory.  In  1598  the  Trihunal  of  Lublin  sentenced  three 
Jews  to  death  on  the  charge  of  having  slain  a  Christian  boy, 
whose  body  had  been  found  in  a  swjim})  in  a  near-by  village.  To 
force  a  confession  from  the  accused  the  whole  inquisitorial  tor- 
ture apparatus  was  set  in  motion,  and  execution  by  quarter- 
ing was  carried  out  with  special  solemnity  in  I^uhlin.  The  body 
of  the  youngster,  the  involuntary  cause  of  the  death  of  inno- 
cent victims,  was  transferred  by  the  Jesuits  to  one  of  the  local 
churches,  where  it  became  the  object  of  superstitious  veneration. 
Trials  of  this  kind,  with  an  occasional  change  of  scene,  were 
enacted  in  many  other  localities  of  Poland  and  Lithuania. 

Simultaneously  a  literary  agitation  against  the  Jews  was  set 
on  foot  by  the  clerical  party.  Father  Moyetzki  published  in 
3598  in  Cracow  his  ferociously  anti-Jewish  book  entitled 
''  Jewish  Bestiality  "  {Okrucienstwo  Zydoiuskie),  enumerating 
all  ritual  murder  trials  which  had  ever  taken  place  in  Europe 
and  particularly  in  Poland,  and  adding  others  which  were 
invented  for  this  purpose  by  the  author.' 

A  Polish  physician,  named  Shleshkovski,  accused  the  Jewish 
physicians,  his  professional  rivals,  of  systematically  poisoning 
and  delivering  to  death  good  Catholics,  and  declared  the  pest, 
raging  at  that  time,  to  be  a  token  of  the  Divine  displeasure 
at  the  protection  granted  to  the  Jews  in  Poland  (Jasny  dowod 
0  doktorach  zydowskich,  "  A  Clear  Argument  Concerning  Jew- 
ish Physicians,"  1623). 

['Stephen  Batory  instituted  two  supreme  courts  for  the  realm: 
one  for  the  Crown,  i.  e.  for  Poland  proper,  and  another  for 
Lithuania.  The  former  held  its  sessions  in  Lublin  for  Little  Poland 
and  in  Piotrkov  for  Great  Poland  (see  p.  164).] 

'  A  second  edition  of  the  book  appeared  in  1636. 


THE  CENTER   IN  POLAND  AT  ITS  ZENITH  97 

But  the  palm  undoubtedly  belongs  to  Sebastian  Michinski, 
of  Cracow,  the  frenzied  author  of  the  "Mirror  of  the  Polish 
Crown"  (Zwierciadlo  korony  Polshiej,  1618).  As  a  docile 
pupil  of  the  Jesuits,  Michinski  collected  everything  that  super- 
stition and  malice  had  ever  invented  against  the  Jews.  He 
charged  the  Jews  with  every  mortal  sin — with  political  treach- 
ery, robbery,  swindling,  witchcraft,  murder,  sacrilege.  In  this 
scurrilous  pamphlet  he  calls  upon  the  deputies  of  the  Polish 
Diet  to  deal  with  the  Jews  as  they  had  been  dealt  with  in  Spain, 
France,  England,  and  other  countries — to  expel  them.  In 
particular,  the  book  is  full  of  libels  against  the  rich  Jews  of 
Cracow,  with  the  result  that  the  sentiment  against  the  Jewish 
population  of  that  city  rapidly  drifted  towards  a  riot.  To  fore- 
stall the  possibility  of  excesses  the  King  ordered  the  confiscation 
of  the  book.  The  incendiary  attacks  of  Michinski  also  led  to 
stormy  debates  at  the  Diet  of  1618.  While  some  deputies  eulo- 
gized him  as  a  champion  of  truth,  others  denounced  him  as  a 
demagogue  and  a  menace  to  the  public  welfare.  The  Diet 
showed  enough  common  sense  to  refuse  to  follow  the  lead 
of  a  writer  crazed  with  Jew-hatred;  yet  the  opinions  voiced 
by  him  gradually  took  hold  of  the  Polish  people,  and  prepared 
the  soil  for  sinister  conflicts. 

Sigismund  III.'s  successor,  Vladislav  IV.,  was  not  so  zealous 
in  his  Catholicism  and  in  his  devotion  to  the  Jesuits  as  his 
father.  He  exhibited  a  certain  amount  of  tolerance  towards 
the  professors  of  other  creeds,  endeavored  to  uphold  the  ancient 
Jewish  privileges,  and  made  it,  in  general,  his  business  to 
reconcile  the  warring  estates  with  one  another.  However,  the 
strife  between  the  religious  and  social  groups  had  already  eaten 
so  deeply  into  the  vitals  of  Poland  that  even  a  far  more  ener- 
getic king  than  Vladislav  IV.  would  scarcely  have  been  able  to 


98  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

put  an  end  to  it.  Instead  of  harmonizing  the  conflicting 
interests,  the  King  sided  now  with  one,  now  with  another,  party. 
In  1633  Vladislav  IV.  confirmed,  at  the  Coronation  Diet,*  the 
basic  privileges  of  the  Jews,  granting  them  full  freedom  in  their 
export  trade,  fixing  the  limits  of  their  judicial  autonomy,  and 
instructing  the  municipalities  to  take  measures  for  shielding 
them  against  popular  outbreaks.  But  at  the  same  time  he 
forbade  the  Jewish  communities  to  erect  new  synagogues  or 
establish  new  cemeteries,  without  obtaining  in  each  case  a  royal 
license.  This  restriction,  by  the  way,  may  be  considered 
a  privilege,  inasmuch  as  an  attempt  had  been  made  by  Sigis- 
mund  III.  to  make  the  right  of  erecting  synagogues  dependent 
on  the  consent  of  the  clergy. 

Though  on  the  whole  desirous  of  respecting  the  rights  of 
the  Jews,  nevertheless,  in  individual  cases,  the  King  acted 
favorably  on  the  petitions  of  various  cities  to  restrict  these 
rights,  and  occasionally  revoked  his  own  orders.  Thus  in  June, 
1643.  he  permitted  the  Jews  of  Cracow  to  engage  freely  in 
export  trade,  but  two  months  later  he  withdrew  his  permission, 
the.  Christian  merchants  of  Cracow  having  complained  to  him 
about  the  effectiveness  of  Jewish  competition.  Complying  with 
the  application  of  the  burghers  of  Moghilev  on  the  Dnieper,' 
he  confirmed,  in  1633,  his  father's  orders  concerning  the  trans- 
fer of  the  Jews  from  the  center  of  the  city  to  its  outskirts,  and 
subsequently,  in  1646,  sanctioned  the  decision  of  the  magistracy 

V  In  addition  to  the  regular  Diets,  which  assembled  every  two 
years  (see  above,  p.  76,  n.  1),  there  were  held  also  Election  Diets 
and  Coronation  Diets,  in  connection  with  the  election  and  the 
coronation  of  the  new  king.  The  former  met  on  a  field  near  War- 
saw; the  latter  were  held  in  Cracow.) 

[^  Moghilev  on  the  Dnieper,  in  White  Russia,  is  to  be  distin- 
guished from  Moghilev  on  the  Dniester,  a  town  in  the  present 
Government  of  Podolia.] 


THE  CENTER  IN  POLAND  AT  ITS  ZENITH  99 

prohibiting  the  letting  of  houses  to  them  in  a  Christian  neigh- 
borhood. The  law  forbidding  Jews  to  engage  in  petty  trade 
on  the  market-place  effected  in  some  cities  a  substantial  rise 
in  the  prices  of  necessaries,  and  the  Shlakhta  petitioned  the 
King  to  repeal  this  prohibition  for  the  city  of  Vilna.  Vladis- 
lav complied  with  the  petition,  but,  to  please  the  Vilna  muni- 
cipality, he  imposed  at  the  same  time  a  number  of  severe 
restrictions  on  the  local  Jews,  making  them  liable  to  the 
municipal  courts  in  monetary  litigation  with  Christians,  con- 
fining their  area  of  residence  to  the  boundaries  of  the  "  Jewish 
street,"  and  barring  them  from  plying  those  trades  which  were 
pursued  by  the  Christian  trade-unions  (1633).  The  same 
policy  was  responsible  for  the  anti-Jewish  riots  which  took 
place  about  the  same  time  in  Vilna,  Brest,  and  other  cities. 

Nothing  did  more  to  accentuate  these  conflicts  than  the  pre- 
posterous economic  policy  of  the  Polish  Government.  The 
Warsaw  Diet  of  1643,  in  endeavoring  to  determine  the  prices 
of  various  articles  of  merchandise,  passed  a  law  compelling  all 
merchants  to  limit  themselves  by  a  public  oath  to  a  definite 
rate  of  profit,  which  was  fixed  at  seven  per  cent  in  the  case  of  the 
native  Christian  (incola),  five  per  cent  in  the  case  of  the 
foreigner  (advena),  and  only  three  per  cent  in  the  case  of  the 
Jew  (infidelis).  It  is  obvious  that,  being  under  the  compul- 
sion of  selling  his  goods  at  a  cheaper  price,  the  Jew  on  the 
one  hand  was  forced  to  lower  the  quality  of  his  merchandise, 
and  on  the  other  hand  was  bound  to  undermine  Christian 
trade,  and  thereby  draw  upon  himself  the  wrath  of  his  com- 
petitors. 

As  for  the  Polish  clergy,  true  to  its  old  policy  it  fostered 
in  its  flock  the  vulgar  religious  prejudices  against  the  Jews. 
This  applies,  in  particular,  to  the  Jesuits,  though,  to  a  lesser 


100  THE  JEWS   IN  RUSSIA   AND  POLAND 

degree,  it  holds  good  also  in  the  case  of  the  other  Catholic 
orders  of  Poland.  A  frequent  contrivance  to  raise  tlie  prestige 
of  the  Church  was  to  engineer  impressive  demonstrations.  In 
the  spring  of  1636,  when  a  Christian  child  happened  to  dis- 
appear in  Lublin,  suspicion  was  cast  upon  the  Jews,  that  they 
had  tortured  the  child  to  death.  The  Crown  Tribunal,  which 
tried  tiie  case,  and  failed  to  find  any  evidence,  acquitted  the 
innocent  Jews.  Thereupon  the  local  clergy,  dissatisfied  with 
the  judjLcment  of  the  court,  manufactured  a  new  case,  this 
time  with  the  necessary  "  evidence.''  A  Carmelite  monk  by 
the  name  of  Peter  asserted  that  the  Jews,  having  lured  him 
into  a  house,  told  a  German  surgeon  to  bleed  him,  and  that  his 
blood  was  squeezed  out  and  poured  into  a  vessel,  while  the  Jews 
murmured  mysterious  incantations  over  it.  The  Tribunal  gave 
credit  to  this  hideous  charge,  and,  after  going  through  the 
regular  legal  proceedings,  including  the  medieval  "  cross- 
examinations  "  and  the  rack,  sentenced  one  Jew  named  Mark 
(Mordecai)  to  death.  The  Carmelite  monks  liastened  to  ad- 
vertise the  case  for  the  purpose  of  planting  the  terrible  preju- 
dice more  firmly  in  the  hearts  of  the  people. 

Another  trial  of  a  similar  nature  took  place  in  1639.  Two 
elders  of  the  Jewish  community  of  Lenchitza  were  sentenced  to 
death  by  the  Crown  Tribunal  on  the  charge  of  having  murdered 
a  Christian  boy  from  a  neighboring  village.  Xeither  the  pro- 
testation of  the  Starosta  of  Lenchitza,  that  the  case  did  not 
come  within  the  jurisdiction  of  his  court,  nor  the  fact  that  the 
accused,  though  put  upon  the  rack,  refused  to  make  a  confes- 
sion, were  able  to  avert  the  death  sentence.  The  bodies  of  the 
executed  Jews  were  cut  into  pieces  and  hung  on  poles  at  the 
cross-roads.     The  Bernardine  monks  of  Lenchitza  turned  the 


THE  CENTER  IN  POLAND  AT  ITS  ZENITH  IQl 

incident  to  good  account  by  placing  the  remains  of  the  sup- 
posedly martyred  boy  in  their  church  and  putting  up  a  picture 
representing  all  the  details  of  the  murder.  The  superstitious 
Catholic  masses  flocked  to  the  church  to  worship  at  the  shrine 
of  the  juvenile  saint,  swelling  the  revenues  of  the  Bernardine 
church — which  was  exactly  what  the  devout  monks  were  after. 
While  the  Church  was  engineering  the  ritual  murder  trials 
for  the  sake  of  "  business,"  the  municipal  agencies,  representing 
the  Christian  merchant  class,  acted  similarly  for  the  purpose 
of  ridding  themselves  of  the  Jews  and  getting  trade  under 
their  absolute  control.  This  policy  is  luridly  illustrated  by  a 
tragic  occurrence,  which,  in  the  years  1635  to  1637,  stirred  the 
city  of  Cracow  to  its  depths.  A  Pole  by  the  name  of  Peter 
Yurkevich  was  convicted  of  having  stolen  some  church 
vessels.  At  the  cross-examination,  having  been  put  upon  the 
rack,  he  testified  that  a  Jewish  tailor,  named  Jacob  Gzheslik, 
had  persuaded  him  to  steal  a  host.  Since  the  Jew  had  disap- 
peared and  could  nowhere  be  found,  Yurkevich  was  the  only 
one  to  bear  the  death  penalty.  But  before  the  execution,  in 
making  his  confession  to  the  priest,  he  stated — and  he  repeated 
the  statement  afterwards  before  an  official  committee  of  in- 
vestigation— the  following  facts  : 

I  have  stolen  no  sacraments  from  any  church,  and  have  never 
made  my  God  an  object  of  barter.  I  merely  stole  a  few  silver  and 
other  church  dishes.  My  former  depositions  were-  made  at  the 
advice  of  the  gentlemen  of  the  magistracy.  The  first  time  I  was 
conducted  into  the  court  room  Judge  Belza  spoke  to  me  as  follows : 
"  Depose  that  you  have  stolen  the  sacraments  and  sold  them  to  the 
Jews.  You  will  suffer  no  harm  from  it,  while  Ave  shall  have  a 
weapon  wherewith  to  expel  the  Jews  from  Cracow."  I  had  hoped 
that  this  deposition  would  obtain  freedom  for  me,  and  I  did  as  I 
had  been  told. 


102  THE  JEWS   IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

But  Yurkevich's  statement  had  no  effect.  He  was  con- 
victed on  the  strength  of  his  original  affidavit,  though  it  had 
been  squeezed  out  of  him  by  trickery  and  torture,  and  he 
was  burned  at  the  stake.  As  for  the  Jews  of  Cracow,  they  had 
to  bear  the  penalty  in  the  shape  of  a  riot,  the  mob  attacking 
the  Jewish  ghetto  and  seizing  forty  Jews,  who  were  carried  off 
to  be  thrown  into  the  river.  Seven  men  were  drowned,  while 
the  others  saved  themselves  by  promising  to  embrace  Chris- 
tianity (May,  1637). 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE  INNER  LIFE  OF  POLISH  JEWRY  AT  ITS 
ZENITH 

1.  Kahal  Autonomy  and  the  Jewish  Diets 

The  peculiar  position  occupied  by  the  Jews  in  Poland  made 
their  social  autonomy  both  necessary  and  possible.  Consti- 
tuting an  historical  nationality,  with  an  inner  life  of  its  own, 
the  Jews  were  segregated  by  the  Government  as  a  separate 
estate,  an  independent  social  body.  Though  forming  an  in- 
tegral part  of  the  urban  population,  the  Jews  were  not  officially 
included  in  any  one  of  the  general  urban  estates,  whose  affairs 
were  administered  by  the  magistracy  or  the  trade-unions. 
Nor  were  they  subjected  to  the  jurisdiction  of  Christian  law 
courts  as  far  as  their  internal  affairs  were  concerned.  They 
formed  an  entirely  independent  class  of  citizens,  and  as  such 
were  in  need  of  independent  agencies  of  self-government  and 
jurisdiction.  The  Jewish  community  constituted  not  only  a 
national  and  cultural,  but  also  a  civil,  entity.  It  formed  a 
Jewish  city  within  a  Christian  city,  with  its  separate  forms  of 
life,  its  own  religious,  administrative,  judicial,  and  charitable 
institutions.  The  Government  of  a  country  with  sharply 
divided  estates  could  not  but  legalize  the  autonomy  of  the 
Jewish  Kahal,  after  having  legalized  the  Magdeburg  Law  of 
the  Christian  urban  estates,  in  which  the  Germans  constituted 
the  predominating  element.  As  for  the  kings,  in  their  capacity 
as  the  official  "  guardians  "  of  the  Jews,  they  were  especially 
concerned  in  having  the  Kahals  properly  organized,  since  the 
regular  payment  of  the  Jewish  taxes  was  thereby  assured. 
Moreover,  the  Government  found  it  more  to  its  convenience  to 


104  THE  JEJWS   IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

deal  with  a  well-defined  body  of  representatives  than  with  the 
unorganized  masses. 

As  early  as  the  period  of  royal  "  paternalism,"  during  the 
reign  of  Sigisniund  I.,  the  king  endeavored  to  extend  his 
fatherly  protection  to  the  Jewish  system  of  communal  self- 
government.  The  appointment  of  Michael  Yosefovich  a^  the 
"senior"  of  the  Lithuanian  Jews,  with  a  rabbi  as  expert 
adviser  *,  was  designed  to  safeguard  the  interests  of  the  exche- 
quer by  concentrating  the  power  in  the  hands  of  a  federa- 
tion of  Kahals  in  Lithuania.  On  more  than  one  occasion 
Sigismund  L  confirmed  the  "spiritual  judges,"  or  rabbis 
(judices  spiritrtalcs,  doclorcs  legis),  elected  by  the  Jews  in 
different  parts  of  Poland,  in  their  oiHee.  In  1518  he  ratified, 
at  the  request  of  the  Jews  of  Posen,  their  election  of  two  lead- 
ing rabbis,  Moses  and  Mendel,  to  the  posts  of  provincial  judges 
for  all  the  communities  of  Great  Poland,  bestowing  upon  the 
newly-elected  ofheials  the  right  of  instructing  and  judging 
their  coreligionists  in  accordance  with  the  Jewish  law.  In 
Cracow,  where  the  Jews  were  divided  into  two  separate  com- 
mimities — one  of  native  Polish  Jews  and  another  of  immi- 
grants from  Bohemia, — the  King  empowered  each  of  them  to 
elect  its  own  rabbi.  The  choice  fell  upon  Rabbi  Asher  for  the 
former,  and  upon  Rabbi  Peretz  for  the  latter,  community,  and 
when  a  dispute  arose  between  the  two  communities  as  to  the 
ownership  of  the  old  synagogue,  the  King  again  intervened,  and 
decided  the  case  in  favor  of  the  native  community  (1519). 
In  1531  Mendel  Frank,  the  rabbi  of  Brest,  complained  to  the 
King  that  the  Jews  did  not  always  respect  his  decisions,  and 
brought  their  cases  before  the  royal  starostas.  Accordingly 
Sigismund  I.  thought  it  necessary  to  warn  the  Jews  to  submit 

•  See  pp.  72  and  73. 


THE  INNER  LIFE  AT  ITS  ZENITH  105 

to  the  jurisdiction  of  their  own  "  doctors/'  or  rabbis,  who  dis- 
pensed justice  according  to  the  "  Jewish  law,"  and  were  given 
the  right  of  imposing  the  "  oath  "  {herem,,  excommunication) 
and  all  kinds  of  other  penalties  upon  insubordinates.  In  the 
following  year  the  King  appointed  as  "  senior/'  or  chief  rabbi, 
of  Cracow  the  well-kno^vu  scholar  Moses  Fishel — who,  it  may 
be  added  parenthetically,  had  taken  the  degree  of  Doctor  of 
Medicine  in  Padua — to  succeed  Eabbi  Asher,  referred  to  previ- 
ously. Pursuing  the  same  policy  of  centralization,  the  King. 
a  few  years  later,  in  1541,  confirmed  in  their  office  as  chief 
rabbis  (seniores)  of  the  whole  province  of  Little  Poland  two 
men  "  learned  in  the  Jewish  law,"  the  same  Eabbi  Moses 
Fishel  of  Cracow,  and  the  famous  progenitor  of  Polish  Tal- 
mudism,  Eabbi  Shalom  Shakhna  of  Lublin. 

In  the  same  measure,  however,  in  which  the  communal  or- 
ganization of  the  Jews  gained  in  strength,  and  the  functions 
of  the  rabbis  and  Kahal  elders  became  more  clearly  defined, 
the  Government  gradually  receded  from  its  attitude  of  paternal 
interference.  The  magna  charta  of  Jewish  autonomy  may  be 
said  to  be  represented  by  the  charter  of  Sigismund  Augustus, 
issued  on  August  13,  1551,  which  embodies  the  fundamental 
principles  of  self-government  for  the  Jewish  communities  of 
Great  Poland. 

According  to  this  charter,  the  Jews  are  entitled  to  elect,  by 
general  agreement,^  their  own  rabbis  and  "  lawful  judges  "  to 
take  charge  of  their  spiritual  and  social  affairs.  The  rabbis 
and  judges,  elected  in  this  manner,  are  authorized  to  expound 
all  questions  of  the  religious  ritual,  to  perform  marriages  and 
grant  divorces,  to  execute  the  transfer  of  property  and  other 

[*  JJnanimi  voto  et  consensu  are  the  exact  words  of  the  document. 
See  Bersohn,  Dyplomatariusz  (Collection  of  ancient  Polish  enact- 
ments relating  to  Jews),  p.  51.] 


106  THE  JEWS   IN  RUSSIA  AND   POLAND 

acts  of  a  civil  character,  and  to  settle  disputes  between  Jews  in 
accordance  with  the  "  Mosaic  law "  (iiixta  rifum  et  morem 
legis  illorum  Mosaicae)  and  tlie  supplementary  Jewish  legisla- 
tion. In  conjunction  with  the  Kahal  elders  they  are  em- 
powered to  subject  offenders  against  the  law  to  excommunica- 
tion and  other  punishments,  such  as  the  Jewish  customs  may 
prescribe.  In  case  the  person  punished  in  this  manner  does  not 
recant  within  a  month,  the  matter  is  to  be  brought  to  the 
knowledge  of  the  king,  who  may  sentence  the  incorrigible  male- 
factor to  death  and  confiscate  his  property.  The  local  officers 
of  the  king  are  enjoined  to  lend  their  assistance  in  carrying 
out  the  orders  of  the  rabbis  and  elders. 

This  enactment,  coupled  with  a  number  of  similar  charters, 
which  were  subsequently  promulgated  for  various  provinces  of 
Poland,  conferred  upon  the  elective  representatives  of  the  Jew- 
ish communities  extensive  autonomy  in  economic  and  admin- 
istrative as  well  as  judicial  affairs,  at  the  same  time  insuring 
its  practical  realization  by  placing  at  its  disposal  the  power  of 
the  royal  administration. 

The  firm  consolidation  of  the  regime  of  the  self-governing 
community,  the  Kahal,  dates  from  that  period.  In  this  appel- 
lation two  concepts  were  merged :  the  "  community,"  the 
aggregate  of  the  local  Jews,  on  the  one  hand,  and,  on  the  other, 
the  "  communal  administration/'  representing  the  totality  of 
all  the  Jewish  institutions  of  a  given  locality,  including  the 
rabbinate.  The  activity  of  the  Kahals  assumed  particularly 
large  proportions  beginning  with  the  latter  half  of  the  sixteenth 
century. 

All  cities  and  towns  with  a  Jewish  population  had  their 
separate  Kahal  boards.  Their  size  corresponded  roughly  to 
that  of  the  given  community.    In  large  centers  the  member- 


THE  INNER  LIFE  AT  ITS  ZENITH  107 

ship  of  the  Kahal  board  amounted  to  forty;  in  smaller  towns 
it  was  limited  to  ten.  The  members  of  the  Kahal  were  elected 
annually  during  the  intermediate  days  of  Passover.  As  a  rule 
the  election  proceeded  according  to  a  double-graded  system. 
Several  electors  (borerim),  their  number  varying  from  nine 
to  five,  were  appointed  by  lot  from  among  the  members  of  all 
synagogues,  and  these  electors,  after  taking  a  solemn  oath,  chose 
the  Kahal  elders.  The  elders  were  divided  into  groups. 
Two  of  these,  the  rashim  and  tuhim  (the  "  heads "  and 
"  optimates"),  stood  at  the  head  of  the  administration,  and 
were  in  charge  of  the  general  affairs  of  the  community.  They 
were  followed  by  the  daijyanim,  or  judges,  and  the  gabhaim,  or 
directors,  who  managed  the  synagogues  as  well  as  the  educa- 
tional and  charitable  institutions.  The  rashim  and  tuhim 
formed  the  nucleus  of  the  Kahal,  seven  of  them  making  a 
quorum;  in  the  smaller  communities  they  were  practically 
identical  with  the  Kahal  board. 

The  sphere  of  the  Kahal's  activity  was  very  large.  With- 
in the  area  allotted  to  it  the  Kahal  collected  and  turned  over 
to  the  exchequer  the  state  taxes,  arranged  the  assessment 
of  imposts,  both  of  a  general  and  a  special  character,  took  charge 
of  the  synagogues,  the  Talmudic  academies,  the  cemeteries, 
and  other  communal  institutions.  The  Kahal  executed  title- 
deeds  on  real  estate,  regulated  the  instruction  of  the  young, 
organized  the  affairs  appertaining  to  charity  and  to  commerce 
and  handicrafts,  and  with  the  help  of  the  dayyanim  and  the 
rabbi  settled  disputes  between  the  members  of  the  community. 
As  for  the  rabbi,  while  exercising  unrestricted  authority  in 
religious  affairs,  he  was  in  all  else  dependent  on  the  Kahal 
board,  which  invited  him  to  his  post  for  a  definite  term.  Only 
great  authorities,  far-famed  on  account  of  their  Talmudic 


108  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

erudition,  wore  able  to  assert  their  iufluenee  in  all  departments 
of  communal  life. 

The  Kahal  of  each  city  extended  its  authority  to  the  adjacent 
settlements  and  villages  which  did  not  possess  autonomous 
organizations  of  their  own.  Moreover,  the  Kahals  of  the  large 
centers  kept  under  their  jurisdiction  the  minor  Kahals,  or 
prikahalki/  as  they  were  officially  called,  of  the  towns  and 
townlets  of  their  district,  as  far  as  the  apportionment  of  taxes 
and  the  judicial  authority  were  concerned.  This  gave  rise  to 
the  "Kahal  boroughs,"  or  ghcliloih  (singular,  galil).  Often 
disputes  arose  between  the  Kahal  boroughs  as  to  the  boundaries 
of  their  districts,  the  contested  minor  communities  submitting 
now  to  this,  now  to  the  other,  "  belligerent."  On  the  whole, 
however,  the  moderate  centralization  of  self-government  bene- 
fited the  Jewish  population,  since  it  introduced  order  and  dis- 
cipline into  the  Kahal  hierarchy,  and  enabled  it  to  defend  the 
civil  and  national  interests  of  Judaism  more  effectively. 

The  capstone  of  this  Kahal  organization  were  the  so-called 
Waads*  the  conferences  or  assemblies  of  rabbis  and  Kahal 
leaders.  These  conferences  received  their  original  impetus  from 
the  rabbis  and  judges.  The  rabbinical  law  court^s,  oflticially 
endowed  with  extensive  powers,  were  guided  in  their  decisions 
by  the  legislation  embodied  in  the  Bible  and  the  Talmud,  which 
made  full  provision  for  all  questions  of  religious,  civil,  and 
domestic  life  as  well  as  for  all  possible  infractions  of  the  law. 
Yet  it  was  but  natural  that  even  in  this  extensive  system  of  law 
disputed  points  should  arise  for  which  the  competency  of  a 
single  rabbi  did  not  suffice.  Moreover  there  were  cases  in 
which  the  litigants  appealed  from  the  decision  of  one  rabbinical 

['Literally,  By-Kahals.] 

['  a  =  short  German  a.    In  Hebrew  '\i}'\ .] 


THE  INNER  LIFE  AT  ITS  ZENITH  109 

court  to  another,  more  authoritative,  court.  Finally  lawsuits 
would  occasionally  arise  between  groups  of  the  population,  be- 
tween one  community  and  another,  or  between  a  private  person 
and  a  Kahal  board.  For  such  emergencies  conferences  of  rabbis 
and  elders  would  be  called  from  time  to  time  as  the  highest 
court  of  appeal. 

Beginning  with  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  century  these 
conferences  met  at  the  time  of  the  great  fairs,  when  large 
numbers  of  people  congregated  from  various  places,  and  liti- 
gants arrived  in  connection  with  their  business  affairs.  The 
chief  meeting-place  was  the  Lublin  fair,  owing  to  the  fact  that 
Lublin  was  the  residence  of  the  father  of  Polish  rabbinism, 
the  above-mentioned  Eabbi  Shalom  Shakhna,  who  was  officially 
recognized  as  the  "  senior  rabbi "  of  Little  Poland.  As  far 
back  as  in  the  reign  of  Sigismund  I.  the  "  Jewish  doctors,"  or 
rabbis,  met  there  for  the  purpose  of  settling  civil  disputes 
"  according  to  their  law."  In  the  latter  part  of  the  sixteenth 
century  these  conferences  of  rabbis  and  communal  leaders, 
assembling  in  connection  with  the  Lublm  fairs,  became  more 
frequent,  and  led  in  a  short  time  to  the  organization  of  regular, 
periodic  conventions,  which  were  attended  by  representatives 
from  the  principal  Jewish  communities  of  the  whole  of  Poland. 

The  activity  of  these  conferences,  or  conventions,  passed, 
by  gradual  expansion,  from  the  judicial  sphere  into  that  of 
administration  and  legislation.  At  these  conventions  laws  were 
adopted  determining  the  order  of  Kahal  elections,  fixing  the 
competency  of  the  rabbis  and  judges,  granting  permits  for 
publishing  books,  and  so  forth.  Occasionally  these  assemblies 
of  Jewish  notables  endorsed  by  their  authority  the  enact- 
ments of  the  Polish  Government.  Thus,  in  1580,  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  Polish-Jewish  communities,  who  assembled  in 


110  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

Lublin,  gave  their  solemn  sanction  to  the  well-known  Polish 
law  barring  the  Jews  of  the  Crown,  of  Poland  proper,  from 
farming  state  taxes  and  other  public  revenues,  in  view  of 
the  fact  that  "  certain  people,  thirsting  for  gain  and  wealth,  to 
be  obtiiiued  from  extensive  leases,  might  tiiereby  expose  the 
community  to  great  danger." 

Towards  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century  the  fair  conferences 
received  a  firmer  organization.  Tliey  were  attended  by  the 
rabbis  and  Kahal  representatives  of  the  following  provinces: 
Great  Poland  (the  leading  community  being  that  of  Posen), 
Little  Poland  (Cracow  and  Lublin),  Red  Russia  (Lem- 
berg),  Volhynia  (Ostrog  and  Kremenetz),  and  Lithuania 
(Brest  and  Grodno).  Originally  the  name  of  the  assembly 
varied  with  tiie  number  of  provinces  represented  in  it,  and  it 
was  designated  as  the  Council  of  the  Three,  or  the  Four,  or 
the  Five,  Ijands.  Subsequently,  when  Lithuania  withdrew 
from  the  Polish  Kahal  organization,  establishing  a  federation 
of  its  own,  and  the  four  provinces  of  the  Crown  ^  began  to  send 
their  delegates  regularly  to  these  conferences,  the  name  of  the 
assembly  was  ultimately  fixed  as  "  the  Council  of  the  Four 
Lands  "  ( Waad  Arha  Aratzoth). 

The  "  Council ''  was  made  up  of  several  leading  rabbis  of 
Poland,^  and  of  one  delegate  for  each  of  the  principal  Kahals 
selected  from  among  their  elders — the  number  of  the  con- 
ferees altogether  amounting  to  about  thirty.  They  met 
periodically,  once  or  twice  a  year,  in  Lublin  and  Yaroslav 
(Galicia)  alternately.  As  a  rule,  the  Council  assembled  in 
Lublin  in  early  spring,  between  Purim  and  Passover,  and  in 
Yaroslav  at  the  end  of  the  summer,  before  the  high  holidays. 

[*  Great  Poland,  Little  Poland,  Red  Russia,  and  Volhynia.  Vol- 
hynia at  first  formed  part  of  the  Lithuanian  Duchy,  but  was  ceded 
to  the  Crown,  in  1569,  by  the  Union  of  Lublin.] 

*  In  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century  their  number  was  six. 


THE  INNER  LIFE  AT  ITS  ZENITH  HI 

The  representatives  of  the  Four  Lands — says  a  well-known 
annalist  of  the  first  half  of  the  seventeenth  century  ^ — reminded 
one  of  the  Sanhedrin,  which  in  ancient  days  assembled  in  the 
Chamber  of  Hewn  Stones  {lishkath  ha-gazith)  of  the  temple.  They 
dispensed  justice  to  all  the  Jews  of  the  Polish  realm,  issued  pre- 
ventive measures  and  obligatory  enactments  (takkanoth) ,  and 
imposed  penalties  as  they  saw  fit.  All  the  difficult  cases  were 
brought  before  their  court.  To  facilitate  matters  the  delegates  of 
the  Four  Lands  appointed  [a  special  commission  of]  so-called 
"provincial  judges"  {dayyane  medinoth)  to  settle  disputes  con- 
cerning property,  while  they  themselves  [in  plenary  session]  exam- 
ined criminal  cases,  matters  appertaining  to 'hazaka  (priority  of 
possession)  and  other  difficult  points  of  law. 

The  Council  of  the  Four  Lands  was  the  guardian  of  Jewish 
civil  interests  in  Poland.  It  sent  its  shtadlans^  to  the  resi- 
dential city  of  Warsaw '  and  other  meeting-places  of  the  Polish 
Diets  for  the  purpose  of  securing  from  the  king  and  his  dig- 
nitaries the  ratification  of  the  ancient  Jewish  privileges,  which 
had  been  violated  by  the  local  authorities,  or  of  forestalling 
contemplated  restrictive  laws  and  increased  fiscal  burdens  for 
the  Jewish  population. 

But  the  main  energy  of  the  Waad  was  directed  towards  the 
regulation  of  the  inner  life  of  the  Jews.  The  statute  of  1607, 
framed,  at  the  instance  of  the  Waad,  by  Joshua  Falk  Cohen, 

^Nathan  Hannover,  in  his  Yeven  Metzula  [see  p.  157,  n.  1],  ed. 
Venice,  1653,  p.  12. 

\'-  A  HebreT"/  te"in  desiTn^.tinf  public-'^'^iri^p''  Je^'s  who  defend 
the  interests  of  their  coreligionists  before  the  Government.  In 
Polish  official  documents  they  are  referred  to  as  "  General  Syndics." 
In  Poland  the  shtadlans  were  regular  officials  maintained  by  the 
Jewish  community.  Comp.  the  article  by  L.  Lewin,  Der  Schtadlan 
im  Posener  Ghetto,  in  Festschrift  published  in  honor  of  Dr.  Wolf 
Feilchenfeld  (1907),  pp.  31  et  seq.] 

^  Towards  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century  Warsaw,  instead  of 
Cracow,  became  the  residence  of  the  Polish  kings.  The  Jews  had 
no  right  of  domicile  in  Warsaw,  and  were  permitted  only  to  visit 
it  temporarily.     [See  p.  85.] 

8 


112  THE  JEWS   IN  RUSSIA   AND  POLAND 

Rabbi  of  Lublin,  is  typital  of  this  solicitude.  The  following 
rules  are  prescribed  for  the  purpose  of  fostering  piety  and  com- 
mercial integrity  among  the  Jewish  people :  to  pay  special 
attention  to  the  observance  of  the  dietary  laws,  to  refrain  from 
adopting  the  Christian  form  of  dress;  not  to  drink  wine  with 
Christians  in  the  pot-houses,  in  order  not  to  be  classed  among 
the  disreputable  members  of  the  community;  to  watch  over 
the  chastity  of  Jewish  women,  particularly  in  the  villages 
where  the  Jewish  arcndars'  with  their  families  wore  isolated 
in  the  midst  of  the  Christian  population.  In  the  same  statute 
rules  arc  also  laid  down  tending  to  restrain  the  activities  of 
Jewish  usurers  and  to  regulate  money  credit  in  general. 

In  1623  the  Kahals  of  Lithuania  withdrew  from  the  federa- 
tion of  the  Four  Lands,  and  established  a  provincial  organiza- 
tion of  their  own,  which  was  centralized  in  the  convention  of 
delegates  from  the  three  principal  Kahals  of  Brest,  Grodno,  and 
Pinsk.  Subsequently,  in  1652  and  1691,  the  Kahals  of  Vilna 
and  Slutzk  were  added.  The  Lithuanian  assembly  w^as  gener- 
ally designated  as  the  "  Council  of  the  Principal  Communitiea 
of  the  Province  of  Lithuania"  (Waad  Kehilloth  Rashioth  di- 
Medinaih  Liia).  The  organic  statute,  framed  by  the  first 
Council,  comprises  many  aspects  of  the  social  and  spiritual  life 
of  the  Jews.  It  lays  down  rules  concerning  the  mutual  relation- 
ship of  the  communities,  the  methods  of  apportioning  the  taxes 
among  them,  the  relations  with  the  outside  world  (such  as  tlie 
Polish  Diets,  the  local  authorities,  the  landed  nobility,  and  the 
urban  estates),  the  elections  of  the  Kahals,  and  the  question  of 
popular  education.  The  Lithuanian  Waad  met  every  three 
years  in  various  cities  of  Lithuania,  but  in  cases  of  emergency 
extraordinary  conventions  were  called.    During  the  first  years 

t'  See  p.  93,  n.  l.] 


THE   INNER  LIFE  AT  ITS  ZENITH  113 

of  its  cxJsteuee  tlie  Lithuanian  Council  was  evidently  subor- 
dinate to  that  of  Poland,  but  nt  a  later  date  this  dependence 
ceased. 

hi  lhi,>  way  botli  llie  (  ruwn,  or  Poland  proper,  and  Lithu- 
ania had  their  connnunal  federations  with  central  administra- 
tive agencies.  As  was  pointed  out  previously,  the  Polish  feder- 
ation was  composed  of  four  provinces.  The  individual  Kahals, 
whi(;h  were  the  component  parts  of  each  of  these  four  provinces, 
held  their  own  provincial  assemblies,  which  stood  in  the  same 
relation  to  the  Waad  as  the  '"  Dietines,"  or  provincial  Diets, 
of  Poland,  to  the  national  Diet  of  the  whole  country.*  Thus 
the  communities  of  (jireat  Poland  had  their  own  Great-Polish 
"  Dietine,"  those  of  Volhynia  their  own  Volhynian  "  Dietine," 
and  so  forth.  The  provincial  Kahal  eonventions  met  for  the 
purpose  of  allotting  the  taxes  to  the  individual  communities 
of  a  given  provijice,  in  proportion  to  the  size  of  its  population, 
or  of  eJeiting  delegates  to  the  federated  Council.  These  Jewish 
1  )ietines  acted  as  the  intermediate  agencies  of  self-government, 
standing  half-way  between  the  individual  Ivahals  on  the  one 
iiand  and  the  general  Waads  of  the  Crown  and  of  Lithuania 
un  the  other. 

This  lirmly-knit  organization  of  communal  self-government 
could  not  but  foster  among  the  Jews  of  Poland  a  spirit  of  dis- 
cipline and  obedience  to  the  law.  It  had  an  educational  effect 
on  the  Jewish  populace,  which  was  left  by  the  Government  to 
itself,  and  had  no  share  in  the  common  life  of  the  country.  It 
provided  the  stateless  nation  with  a  substitute  for  national  and 
political  self-expression,  keeping  public  spirit  and  civic  virtue 
alive  in  it,  and  upliolding  and  unfolding  its  genuine  culture. 

['See  p.  76,  n.  l.| 


114  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

2.  The  Instruction  of  the  Young 

One  of  the  mainstays  of  this  genuine  culture  was  the  autono- 
mous school.  The  instruction  of  the  rising  generation  was  the 
object  of  constant  solicitude  on  the  part  of  the  Kahals  and  the 
rabbis  as  well  as  the  conventions  and  Councils.  Elementary 
and  secondary  education  was  centered  in  the  heelers,  while 
higher  education  was  fostered  in  the  ycshihalis.  Attendance 
at  the  heder  was  compulsory  for  all  children  of  school  age,  ap- 
proximately from  six  to  thirteen.  The  subjects  of  instruction 
at  these  schools  were  the  Bible  in  the  original,  accompanied  by 
a  translation  into  the  Judeo-German  vernacular,'  and  the 
easier  treatises  of  the  Talmud  with  commentaries.  In  some 
heders  the  study  of  Hebrew  grammar  and  the  four  fundamental 
operations  of  arithmetic  were  also  admitted  into  the  curricu- 
lum. The  establishment  of  these  heders  was  left  to  private 
initiative,  every  melammed,  or  Jewish  elementary  teacher,  be- 
ing allowed  to  open  a  heder  for  boys  and  to  receive  compensa- 
tion for  his  labors  from  their  parents.  Only  the  heders  for  poor 
children  or  for  orphans,  the  so-called  Talmud  Torahs,  were 
maintained  by  the  community  from  public  funds.  Yet  the 
supervision  of  the  Kahal  extended  not  only  to  the  public,  but 
also  to  the  private,  elementary  schools.  The  Kahal  prescribed 
the  curriculum  of  the  heders,  arranged  examinations  for  the 
scholars,  fixed  the  remuneration  of  the  teachers,  determined  the 

f  The  ?,o-Q.?i\\QA  Jiidisch-Beutsch,  which  was  by  the  Jews  brought 
from  Germany  to  Poland  and  Lithuania.  It  was  only  in  the 
latter  part  of  the  seventeenth  century  that  the  dialect  of  Polish- 
Lithuanian  Jewry  began  to  depart  from  the  Jiidisch-Deutsch  as 
spoken  by  the  German  Jews,  thus  laying  the  foundation  for 
modern  Yiddish.  See  Dubnow's  article  "  On  the  Spoken  Dialect 
and  the  Popular  Literature  of  the  Polish  and  Lithuanian  Jews  in 
the  Sixteenth  and  the  First  Half  of  the  Seventeenth  Century,"  in 
the  periodical  Yevreyskaya  Starina,  i.  (1909),  pp.  1  et  seq.] 


THE  INNER  LIFE  AT  ITS  ZENITH  115 

hours  of  instruction  (wliicli  were  generally  from  eight  to 
twelve  a  day),  and  took  charge  of  the  whole  school  work,  in 
some  places  even  appointing  a  sort  of  school  board  {Hevrah 
Talmud  Torah)  from  among  its  own  members. 

The  higher  Talmudic  school  or  college,  the  yeshibah,  was 
entirely  under  the  care  of  the  Kahal  and  the  rabbis.  This 
school,  which  provided  a  complete  religious  and  juridical  edu- 
cation based  on  the  Talmud  and  the  rabbinical  codes  of  law, 
received  the  sanction  of  the  Polish  Government.  King  Sigis- 
mund  Augustus  granted  the  Jewish  community  of  Lublin 
permission  to  open  a  yeshibah,  or  "  gymnazium  "  {gymnazium 
ad  instiiuendos  homines  illorum  reUgionis) ,  with  a  synagogue 
attached  to  it,  bestowing  upon  its  president,  a  learned  rabbi, 
not  only  the  title  of  "  rector,"  but  also  extensive  powers  over 
the  affairs  of  the  community  (1567).  Four  years  later  the 
same  King  granted  an  even  larger  license  to  "  the  learned  Solo- 
mon of  Lemberg,  whom  the  Jewish  community  of  Lemberg  and 
the  whole  land  of  Russia  ^  have  chosen  for  their  '  senior  doctor  ' 
{ah-hetli-din,  or  rosli-yesldhah) ,"  conferring  upon  him  the 
right  to  open  schools  in  various  cities,  "  to  train  the  students 
in  the  sciences,"  to  keep  them  under  his  control,  and  to  inure 
them  to  a  strict  discipline. 

In  the  course  of  time  Talmudic  yeshibahs  sprang  up  in  all  the 
cities  of  Poland  and  Lithuania.  The  functions  of  rector,  or 
rosh-yeshibah,  were  performed  either  by  the  local  rabbi  or  by 
a  man  especially  selected  for  this  post  on  account  of  his  learn- 
ing. It  seems  that  the  combination  of  the  two  offices  of  rabbi 
and  college  president  in  one  person  was  limited  to  those  com- 
munities in  which  the  duties  of  the  spiritual  guide  of  the  com- 
munity were  not  complex,  and  admitted  of  the  simultaneous 

[*/.  e.  Red  Russia,  or  Galicia.] 


110  THE  JEWS   IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

discharge  of  peda^o<i^ie  functions.  In  the  large  centers,  liow- 
ever,  where  the  pul)lic  responsibilities  were  regularly  divided, 
the  rosh-yeshibah  was  an  independent  dignitary,  who  was 
clothed  with  consideral)le  authority.  Similar  to  the  contem- 
porary rectors  of  Jesuit  colleges,  the  rosh-yeshibah  was  abso- 
lute master  within  the  school  walls;  he  exercised  unrestricted 
control  over  his  pupils,  subjecting  them  to  a  well-estal»lished 
discipline  and  dispensing  justice  among  them. 

The  contemporary  chronicler  quoted  above,  Kabbi  Nathan 
Hannover,  of  Zaslav,  in  ^'olhynia,  portrays  in  vivid  colors  the 
Jewish  school  life  of  Poland  and  Lithuania  in  the  first  half 
of  the  seventeenth  century. 

In  no  country — quoth  Rabbi  Nathan  ' — was  the  study  of  the 
Torah  so  widespread  among  the  Jews  as  in  the  Kingdom  of  Poland. 
Every  Jewish  community  maintained  a  yeshibah,  paying  its  presi- 
dent a  large  salary,  so  as  to  enable  him  to  conduct  the  institution 
without  worry  and  to  devote  himself  entirely  to  the  pursuit  of 
learning.  .  .  .  Moreover,  every  Jewish  community  supported  col- 
lege students  (bahurs),  giving  them  a  certain  amount  of  money 
per  week,  so  that  they  might  study  under  the  direction  of  the 
president.  Every  one  of  these  bahurs  was  made  to  instruct  at 
least  two  boys,  for  the  purpose  of  deepening  his  own  studies  and 
gaining  some  experience  in  Talmudic  discussions.  The  [poor] 
boys  obtained  tlieir  food  either  from  the  charity  fund  or  from  the 
public  kitchen.  A  community  of  fifty  Jewish  families  would  sup- 
port no  less  than  thirty  of  these  young  men  and  boys,  one  family 
supplying  board  for  one  college  student  and  his  two  pupils,  the 

former  sitting  at  the  family  table  like  one  of  the  sons There 

was  scarcely  a  house  in  the  whole  Kingdom  of  Poland  where  the 
Torah  was  not  studied,  and  where  either  the  head  of  the  family 
or  his  son  or  his  son-in-law,  or  the  yeshibah  student  boarding  v.ith 
him,  was  not  an  expert  in  Jewish  learning;  frequently  all  of  these 

^Yeven  Metzula  [see  p.  157,  n.  1],  towards  the  end. 


THE  INNER  LIFE  AT  ITS  ZENITH  117 

could  be  found  under  one  roof.  For  this  reason  every  community 
contained  a  large  number  of  scholars,  a  community  of  fifty  fami- 
lies having  as  many  as  twenty  learned  men,  who  were  styled 
morenu '  or  haber.^  They  were  all  excelled  by  the  rosh-yeshibah, 
all  the  scholars  submitting  to  his  authority  and  studying  under 
him  at  the  yeshibah. 

The  program  of  study  in  Poland  was  as  follows:  The  scholastic 
term  during  which  the  young  men  and  the  boys  were  obliged  to 
study  under  the  rosh-yeshibah  lasted  from  the  beginning  of  the 
month  of  lyyar  until  the  middle  of  Ab  [approximately  from  April 
until  July]  in  the  summer  and  from  the  first  of  the  month  of 
Heshvan  until  the  fifteenth  of  Shebat  [October-June]  in  the  winter. 
Outside  of  these  terms  the  young  men  and  the  boys  were  free  to 
choose  their  own  place  of  study.  From  the  beginning  of  the  sum- 
mer term  until  Shabuoth  and  from  the  beginning  of  the  winter 
term  until  Hanukkah  all  the  students  of  the  yeshibah  studied  with 
great  intensity  the  Gemara  [the  Babylonian  Talmud]  and  the  com- 
mentaries of  Rashi '  and  the  Tosafists.'' 

The  scholars  and  young  students  of  the  community  as  well 
as  all  interested  in  the  study  of  the  Law  assembled  daily  at  the 
yeshibah,  where  the  president  alone  occupied  a  chair,  while 
the  scholars  and  college  students  stood  around  him.  Before 
the  appearance  of  the  rosh-yeshibah  they  would  discuss  ques- 
tions of  Jewish  law,  and  when  he  arriA-^ed  every  one  laid  his  diffi- 
culties before  him,  and  received  an  explanation.  Thereupon  silence 
was  restored,  and  the  rosh-yeshibah  delivered  his  lecture,  pre- 
senting the  new  results  of  his  study.     At  the  conclusion  of  the 


[*  Literally,  "  our  teacher,"  a  title  bestowed  since  the  Middle  Ages 
on  every  ordained  rabbi.] 

[-  Literally,  "  companion,"  "  colleague,"  a  title  conferred  upon 
men  who,  without  being  ordained,  have  attained  a  high  degree  of 
scholarship.] 

[^  Abbreviation  for  Rabbi  Solomon  ben  Isaac  (d.  1105),  a  famous 
French  rabbi,  whose  commentaries  on  the  Bible  and  the  Talmud 
are  marked  by  wonderful  lucidity.] 

[*  A  school  of  Talmudic  authorities,  mostly  of  French  origin,  who, 
in  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries,  wrote  Tosafoth  (literally, 
"Additions"),  critical  and  exegetical  annotations,  distinguished 
for  their  ingenuity.] 


118  THE  JEWS   IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

lecture  he  arranged  a  scientific  argumentation  (hilluk) ,  proceeding 
in  tlie  following  way:  Various  contradictions  in  the  Talmud  and 
the  commentaries  were  pointed  out,  and  solutions  were  proposed. 
These  solutions  were,  in  turn,  shown  to  be  contradictory,  and  other 
solutions  were  offered,  this  process  being  continued  until  the  sub- 
ject of  discussion  was  completely  elucidated.  These  exercises 
continued  in  summer  at  least  until  midday.  From  the  middle  of 
the  two  scholastic  terms  until  their  conclusion  the  rosh-yeshibah 
paid  less  attention  to  these  argumentations,  and  read  instead  the 
religious  codes,  studying  with  the  mature  scholars  the  Turim  * 
with  commentaries,  and  with  the  [younger]  students  the  compen- 
dium of  Alfasi.'  ....  Several  weeks  before  the  close  of  the  term 
the  rosh-yeshibah  would  honor  the  members  of  his  college,  both  the 
scholars  and  the  students,  by  inviting  them  to  conduct  the  scien- 
tific disputations  on  his  behalf,  though  he  himself  would  partici- 
pate in  the  discussion  in  order  to  exercise  the  mental  faculties  of 
all  those  attending  the  yeshibah. 

Attached  to  the  president  of  the  yeshibah  was  an  inspector,  who 
had  the  duty  of  visiting  the  elementary  schools,  or  heders,  daily, 
and  seeing  to  it  that  all  boys,  whether  poor  or  rich,  applied  them- 
selves to  study  and  did  not  loiter  in  the  streets.  On  Thursdays 
the  pupils  had  to  present  themselves  before  the  trustee  {gabbai) 
of  the  Talmud  Torah,  who  examined  them  in  what  they  had  covered 
during  the  week.  The  boy  who  knew  nothing  or  who  did  not 
answer  adequately  was  by  order  of  the  trustee  turned  over  to 
the  inspector,  who  subjected  him,  in  the  presence  of  his  fel- 
low-pupils, to  severe  physical  punishment  and  other  painful 
degradations,  that  he  might  firmly  resolve  to  improve  in  his  studies 
during  the  following  week.  On  Fridays  the  heder  pupils  presented 
themselves  in  a  body  before  the  rosh-yeshibah  himself,  to  undergo 


[*  Hebrew  for  "  Rows,"  with  reference  to  the  four  rows  of 
precious  stones  in  the  garment  of  the  high  priest  (Ex.  xxviii.,  17)  — 
title  of  a  code  of  laws  composed  by  Rabbi  Jacob  ben  Asher  (died  at 
Toledo  ab.  1340).  It  is  divided  into  four  parts,  dealing  respectively 
with  ritual,  dietary,  domestic,  and  civil  laws.  The  Turim  was  the 
forerunner  of  the  Shulhan  Arukh.  for  w-hich  it  served  as  a  model.] 

['Isaac  ben  Jacob  r-l-Fasi  (f.  e.  from  Fez  in  North  Africa)  (died 
1103),  author  of  a  famous  Talmudic  compendium.] 


THE  INNER  LIFE  AT  ITS  ZENITH  119 

a  similar  examination.  Tliis  had  a  strong  deterrent  effect  upon  the 
boys,  and  they  devoted  themselves  energetically  to  their  studies. 
....  The  scholars,  seeing  this  [the  honors  showered  upon  the 
rosh-j'eshibah],  coveted  the  same  distinction,  that  of  becoming  a 
rosh-yeshibah  in  some  community.  They  studied  assiduously  in 
consequence.  Prompted  originally  by  self-interest,  they  gradually 
came  to  devote  themselves  to  the  Torah  from  pure,  unselfish 
motives. 

By  way  of  contrast  to  this  panegyric  upon  Polish-Jewish 
school  life,  it  is  only  fair  that  we  should  quote  another  con- 
temporary, who  severely  criticizes  the  methods  of  instruction 
then  in  vogue  at  the  yeshibahs. 

The  whole  instruction  at  the  yeshibah — writes  the  well-known 
preacher  Solomon  Ephraim  of  Lenchitza  (d.  1619)^ — reduces  itself 
to  mental  equilibristics  and  empty  argumentations  called  hilluk. 
It  is  dreadful  to  contemplate  that  some  venerable  rabbi,  presiding 
over  a  yeshibah,  in  his  anxiety  to  discover  and  communicate  to 
others  some  new  interpretation,  should  offer  a  perverted  explana- 
tion of  the  Talmud,  though  he  himself  and  every  one  else  be  fully 
aware  that  the  true  meaning  is  different.  Can  it  be  God's  will 
that  we  sharpen  our  minds  by  fallacies  and  sophistries,  spending 
our  time  in  vain  and  teaching  the  listeners  to  do  likewise?  And 
all  this  for  the  mere  ambition  of  passing  for  a  great  scholar!  .  .  . 
I  myself  have  more  than  once  argued  with  the  Talmudic  celebrities 
of  our  time,  showing  the  need  for  abolishing  the  method  of  pilpul 
and  hilluk,  without  being  able  to  convince  them.  This  attitude  can 
only  be  explained  by  the  eagerness  of  these  scholars  for  honors  and 
rosh-yeshibah  posts.  These  empty  quibbles  have  a  particularly 
pernicious  effect  on  our  bahurs,  for  the  reason  that  the  bahur  who 
does  not  shine  in  the  discussion  is  looked  down  upon  as  incapable, 
and  is  practically  forced  to  lay  aside  his  studies,  though  he  might 
prove  to  be  one  of  the  best,  if  Bible,  Mishnah,  Talmud,  and  the 
Codes  were  studied  in  a  regular  fashion.     I  myself  have  known 


*  B'K'  nior.  ed.  Lemberg,  1865,  pp.  18b,  61b. 


120  THE  JEWS   IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

capable  young  men  who,  not  having  distinguished  themselves  in 
pllpul.  forfeited  the  respect  of  their  fellow-students,  and  stopped 
studying  altogether  after  their  marriage. 

Secular  studies  were  uot  included  in  the  curriculum  of  the 
yeshibahs,  Tlie  religious  codes  composed  during  that  period 
allow  the  study  of  "the  otiier  sciences"  only  "on  occasion," 
and  only  to  those  who  have  completely  mastered  Talmudic  and 
rabbinic  literature.  Needless  to  say,  no  yeshibah  student 
could  lay  claim  to  such  mastery  until  the  completion  of  the 
college  course.  ^loreover,  the  secular  sciences  had  to  be 
excluded  from  the  yeshibah,  for  the  external  reason  that 
the  latter  was  generally  located  in  a  sacred  place,  near  the 
synagogue,  where  the  mere  presence  of  a  secular  book  was 
regarded  as  a  profanation.  Yet  it  occasionally  happened  that 
young  men  strayed  away  from  the  path  of  the  Talmud,  and 
secretly  indulged  in  the  study  of  secular  sciences  and  of  Aristo- 
telian philosophy.  This  fact  is  attested  by  the  great  rabbinical 
authority  of  the  sixteenth  century.  Rabbi  Solomon  Luria.  "  I 
myself  " — he  writes  indignantly — "  have  seen  the  prayer  of 
Aristotle  copied  in  the  prayer-books  of  the  haliurs."  This 
vsomcwhat  veiled  expression  indicates,  in  all  likelihood,  that 
among  the  books  of  the  yeshibah  students  "  contraband  "  was 
occasionally  discovered,  in  the  shape  of  manuscripts  of  philo- 
sophic content.  Unfortunately  we  hear  nothing  more  definite 
as  to  the  way  in  which  the  Jewish  youth  of  that  period  became 
infatuated  with  anathematized  philosophy.  We  have  reason  to 
assume,  however,  that  such  deviations  from  the  rigorous  dis- 
cipline of  rabbinical  scholarship  were  few  and  far  between. 

The  yeshibahs,  providing  as  they  did  an  academic  training, 
were  the  nurseries  of  that  intellectual  aristocracy  which  subse- 
quently became  so  powerful  a  factor  in  the  life  of  Polish-Lithu- 


THE   INNER  LIFE  AT  ITS  ZENITH  121 

aniau  Jewry.  This  numerically  considerable  class  of  scholars 
looked  down  upon  the  uneducated  multitude.  Yet  the  level  of 
literacy  even  among  the  latter  was  comparatively  high.  All 
boys,  without  exception,  attended  the  heder,  where  they  studied 
the  Hebrew  language  and  the  Bible,  while  many  devoted  them- 
selves to  the  Talmud.  A  different  attitude  is  observable  towards 
female  education.  Girls  remained  outside  the  school,  their  in- 
struction not  being  considered  obligatory  according  to  the 
Jewish  law.  No  heders  for  girls  are  mentioned  in  any  of  the 
documents  of  the  time.  Nor  did  a  single  woman  attain  to  liter- 
ary fame  among  the  Jews  of  Poland  and  Lithuania.  The  girls 
were  taught  at  home  to  read  the  prayers,  but  they  were  seldom 
instructed  in  the  Hebrew  language,  so  that  the  majority  of 
women  had  but  a  very  imperfect  notion  of  the  meaning  of  the 
prayers  in  the  original.  In  consequence,  the  women  began  at 
that  time  to  use  the  translations  of  the  prayers  in  the  Jewish 
vernacular,  the  so-called  Jiidisch-Deufsch. 

3.  The  High-Water  Mark  of  Eabbixic  Learnijjg 

The  high  intellectual  level  of  the  Polish  Jews  was  the  result 
of  their  relative  economic  prosperity.  As  for  the  character  of 
their  mental  productivity,  it  was  the  direct  outcome  of  their 
social  autonomy.  The  vast  system  of  Kahal  self-government 
enhanced  not  only  the  authority  of  the  rabbi,  but  also  that  of 
the  learned  Talmudist  and  of  every  layman  familiar  with  Jew- 
ish law.  The  rabbi  discharged,  within  the  limits  of  his  com- 
munity, the  functions  of  spiritual  guide,  liead  of  the  yeshibah, 
and  inspector  of  elementary  schools,  as  well  as  those  of  legis- 
lator and  judge.  An  acquaintance  with  the  vast  and  compli- 
cated Talmudic  law  was  to  a  certain  extent  necessary  even  for 
the  layman  who  occupied  the  office  of  an  elder  {parnas,  or 


123  THE  JEWS   IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

rosh-ha-Kahal) ,  or  was  in  some  way  connected  with  the  scheme 
of  Jewish  self-government.  For  the  enactments  of  the  Talmud 
regulated  the  inner  life  of  the  Polish  Jews  in  the  same  way  as 
they  had  done  formerly  in  Babylonia,  in  the  time  of  the  autono- 
mous Exilarchs  and  Gaons.  But  it  must  be  remembered  that, 
since  the  times  of  the  Gaons,  Jewish  law  had  been  consider- 
ably amplified.  Rabbinic  Judaism  having  been  superimposed 
upon  Talmudic  Judaism.  This  mass  of  religious  lore,  which 
had  been  accumulating  for  centuries,  now  monopolized  the 
minds  of  all  educated  Jews  in  the  empire  of  Poland,  which 
thus  became  a  second  Babylonia.  It  reigned  supreme  in  the 
synagogues,  the  yeshibahs,  and  the  elementary  schools.  It 
gave  tone  to  social  and  domestic  life.  It  spoke  through  the 
mouth  of  the  judge,  the  administrator,  and  the  communal 
leader.  Lastly  it  determined  the  content  of  Jewish  literary 
productivity.  Polish- Jewish  literature  was  almost  exclusively 
consecrated  to  rabbinic  law. 

The  beginnings  of  Talmudic  learning  in  Poland  can  be 
traced  back  to  the  first  half  of  the  sixteenth  century.  It  had 
been  carried  thither  from  neighboring  Bohemia,  primarily  from 
the  school  of  the  originator  of  the  pilpul  method,  Jacob  Pol- 
lack.' A  pupil  of  the  latter.  Rabbi  Shalom  Shakhna  (ab, 
1500-1558),  is  regarded  as  one  of  the  pioneers  of  Polish  Tal- 
mudism.  All  we  know  about  his  fortunes  is  that  he  lived  and 
died  in  Lublin,  that  in  1541  he  was  confirmed  by  a  decree  of 
King  Sigismund  I.  in  the  office  of  chief  rabbi  of  Little  Poland, 
and  that  he  stood  at  the  head  of  the  yeshibah  which  sent  forth 

^  It  has  been  conjectured  that  the  same  scholar  occupied,  some 
time  between  1503  and  1520,  the  post  of  rector  in  Poland  itself, 
being  at  the  head  of  the  yeshibah  in  Cracow. 


THE  INNER  LIFE  AT  ITS  ZENITH  123 

the  rabbinical  celebrities  of  the  following  generation.*  It  is 
quite  probable  that  the  rabbinical  conferences  of  Lublin,  which 
afterwards  led  to  the  formation  of  the  "  Council  of  the  Four 
Lands/'  owe  their  inception  to  the  initiative  of  Eabbi  Shakhna. 
After  his  death  his  son  Israel  succeeded  to  the  post  of  chief 
rabbi  in  Lublin.  But  it  was  a  pupil  of  Shakhna,  Moses  Isserles, 
known  in  literature  by  the  abbreviated  name  of  EeMO  (1520- 
1572),'  who  became  famous  throughout  the  entire  Jewish 
world. 

Moses  Isserles,  the  son  of  a  well-to-do  Kahal  elder  in  Cra- 
cow, became  prominent  in  the  rabbinical  world  early  in  life. 
He  occupied  the  post  of  a  member  of  the  Jewish  communal 
court  in  his  native  city,  and  stood  at  the  head  of  the  yeshibah. 
This  combination  of  scholarly  and  practical  activities  prompted 
him  to  delve  deep  in  the  existing  rabbinical  codes,  and  he 
found,  as  a  result  of  his  investigation,  that  they  were  not 
exhaustive,  and  were  in  need  of  amplification. 

Isserles  was  not  even  satisfied  with  the  thoroughgoing  elabo- 
ration of  Jewish  law  which  had  been  undertaken  by  his  Pales- 
tinian contemporary'  Joseph  Caro.  When,  in  the  middle  of  the 
sixteenth  century,  Caro's  comprehensive  commentary  on  the 
Code  Turim^  entitled  Beth-Yoseph  ("House  of  Joseph"), 
appeared,  Isserles  composed  a  commentary  on  the  same  code 
under  the  name  Darkhe  Moslie  {''  Ways  of  Moses  ''),in  which 
he  considerably  enlarged  the  legal  material  collected  there, 
drawing  from  sources  which  Caro  had  left  out  of  con- 
sideration. 

[^  Two  of  his  Responsa  were  published  in  Cracow,  ab.  1540.  See 
Zedner,  Catalogue  British  Museum,  p.  695.  A  new  edition  appeared 
in  Husiatyn,  in  1904,  together  with  Hiddushe  Aaron  Halevi-i 

''■  5<"D-|[ initials  of  T^-'bbi  Moses  /(n  =  o)sserlesJ. 

['  See  p.  118,  n.  1.] 


124  THE  JEWS   IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

When,  a  few  3'ears  later,  the  latter  published  his  owu  code, 
under  the  name  of  Shulhan  Arul-k  (''The  Dressed  Table"), 
Isserles  called  attention  to  the  fact  that  its  author,  being  a 
Sephardic  Jew,  had  tailed  in  many  cases  to  utilize  the  investi- 
gations of  the  rabbinic  authorities  among  the  Ashkenazim, 
and  had  left  out  of  consideration  the  local  religious  customs,  or 
minhagim,  which  were  current  among  various  groups  oL" 
German-Polish  Jewry.  These  omissions  were  carefully  noted 
and  supplied  by  Isserles.  He  supplemented  the  text  of  the 
Shulhan  Arukh  by  a  large  number  of  new  laws,  which  he  had 
fraiiied  on  the  basis  of  the  above-mentioned  popular  customs 
or  of  the  religious  and  legal  practice  of  the  Ashkeuazic  rabbis. 
Caro's  code  having  been  named  by  the  author  "  The  Dressed 
Table,"  Isserles  gave  his  supplements  thereto  the  title  "  Table- 
cloth "  (Mappa).'  In  this  supplemented  form  tiie  Shulhan 
.Arukh  was  introduced,  as  a  code  of  Jewish  rabbinic  law,  into 
the  religious  and  everyday  life  of  the  Polish  Jews.  The  first 
edition  of  this  combined  code  of  Caro  and  Isserles  appeared  in 
Cracow  in  1578,  followed  by  numerous  reprints,  which  testify 
to  the  extraordinary  popularity  of  the  work. 

The  Shulhan  Arukh  became  the  substructure  for  the  further 
development  of  Polish  rabbinism.  Only  very  few  scholars  of 
consequence  had  the  courage  to  challenge  the  authority  of  this 
generally  acknowledged  code  of  laws.  One  of  these  courageous 
men  was  the  contemporary  and  correspondent  of  Isserles,  Solo- 
mon Luria,  known  by  the  abbreviated  name  of  ReSHaL'' 
(ab.  1510-1573).  Solomon  Luria  was  a  native  of  Posen, 
whither  his  grandfather  had  immigrated  from  Germany.  En- 
dowed with  a  subtle,  analytic  mind,  Luria  was  a  determined 

^  Popularly,  however,  Isserles'  supplements  are  called  Haggahoth 
("  Annotations"). 
'  S"B'"|[ initials  of  Kabbi  -S//elomo  Luria]. 


THE  INNER  LIFE  AT  ITS  ZENITH  125 

opponent  of  the  new  school  dialectics  (pilpul),  taking  for  his 
model  the  old  casuistic  method  of  the  Tosafists/  which  con- 
sisted in  a  detailed  criticism  and  an  ingenious  analysis  of  the 
Talmudic  texts.  In  this  spirit  he  began  to  compose  his  re- 
markable commentary  on  the  Talmud  (Yam  ah  el  Shelomo, 
"Sea  of  Solomon"'),  but  succeederl  in  interpreting  only  a 
few  tractates. 

In  all  his  investigations  Luria  manifested  boldness  of 
thought  and  independence  of  judgment,  without  sparing  the 
authorities  whenever  he  believed  them  to  be  in  the  wrong. 
Of  the  Shulhan  Arukh  and  its  author  Luria  spoke  slightingly, 
claiming  that  Joseph  Caro  had  used  his  sources  without  the 
necessary  discrimination,  and  had  decided  many  moot  points  of 
law  arbitrarily.  In  consequence  of  this  independence  of  judg- 
ment, Solomon  Luria  had  many  enemies  in  the  scholarly  world, 
but  he  had,  on  the  other  hand,  many  enthusiastic  admirers  and 
devoted  disciples.  In  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  century  he 
occupied  the  post  of  rabbi  in  the  city  of  Ostrog,  in  Volhynia. 
By  his  Talmudic  lectures,  which  attracted  students  from  the 
whole  region,  he  made  this  city  the  intellectual  center  of  Vol- 
hynian  and  Lithuanian  Jewry.  The  last  years  of  his  life  he 
spent  in  Lublin,  where  to  this  day  there  exists  a  synagogue 
which  bears  his  name. 

Luria  and  Isserles  were  looked  upon  as  the  pillars  of  Polish 
rabbinism.  Questions  of  Jewish  ritual  and  law  wore  submitted 
to  them  for  decision,  not  only  from  various  parts  of  their  own 
country  but  also  from  Western  Europe,  from  Italy,  Germany, 
and  Bohemia.  Their  replies  to  these  inquiries,  or  "  Responsa  " 
(Shaaloth  u-Teshuhoth),  have  been  gathered  in  special  col- 
lections. 

[»See  p.  117,  n.  4.1 

[^Allusion  to  I  Kings  vlL.  23-26.1 


126  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

These  two  rabbis  also  carried  on  a  scientific  correspondence 
with  each  other.  As  a  result  of  their  divergent  character  and 
trend  of  mind,  heated  discussions  frequently  took  place  between 
them.  Thus  Luria,  in  spite  of  all  his  sobriety  of  intellect, 
gravitated  towards  tlie  Cabala,  while  Isserles,  with  all  his  rab- 
binic conservatism,  devoted  part  of  his  leisure  to  philosophy. 
The  two  scholars  rebuked  each  other  for  their  resj)ective 
"  weaknesses."  Luria  maintained  that  the  wisdom  of  the 
"  uncircumcised  Aristotle "  could  be  of  no  benefit,  while 
Isserles  tried  to  prove  that  many  views  of  the  Cabala  were  not 
in  accord  with  the  ideas  of  the  Talmud,  and  that  mysticism  was 
more  dangerous  to  faith  than  a  moderate  philosophy. 

Isserles  was  right.  The  philusuphy  witii  which  he  occupied 
himself  could  scarcely  be  destructive  of  Orthodoxy.  This  is 
shown  by  his  large  work  Tonifh  ha-'Olah  ("  The  Law  of  tiie 
Burnt-Oll'ering,"  15T0),'  which  represents  a  weird  mixture  of 
religious  and  philosophic  discussions  on  themes  borrowed  from 
Maimonides'  "Guide  of  the  Perplexed,"  interspersed  with 
speculations  about  the  various  classes  of  angels  or  the  architec- 
ture of  tlie  Jerusalem  temple,  its  vessels  and  order  of  sacrifices. 
The  author  professes  to  detect  in  all  the  details  of  the  temple 
service  a  profound  symbolism.  Notwithstanding  the  strange 
plan  of  the  book  there  are  many  chapters  in  it  that  show  the 
intimate  familiarity  of  Isserles  with  the  philosophic  literature 
of  the  Sephardim,  a  remarkable  record  for  an  Ashkenazic 
rabbi  of  the  sixteenth  century. 

The  intimate  connection  between  rabbinic  learning  and  Jew- 
ish life  stood  out  in  bold  relief  from  the  moment  the  "  Council 
of  the  Four  Lands  "  began  to  discharge  its  regular  functions. 
The  Council  had  frequent  occasion  to  decide,  for  practical 
purposes,   complicated    questions    appertaining    to    domestic, 

[*  Allusion  to  Lev.  vi.  2.] 


THE  INNER  LIFE  AT  ITS  ZENITH  137 

civil,  and  criminal  law,  or  relating  to  legal  procedure  and 
religious  practice,  and  the  rabbis  who  participated  in  these 
conferences  as  legal  experts  were  forced  to  accomplish  a 
large  amount  of  concrete,  tangible  work  for  themselves  and 
their  colleagues.  Questions  of  law  and  ritual  were  every- 
where assiduously  investigated  and  elaborated,  with  that  subtle 
analysis  peculiar  to  the  Jewish  mind,  which  pursues  every 
idea  to  its  remotest  consequences  and  its  most  trifling  details. 

The  subject  as  well  as  the  method  of  investigation  depended, 
as  a  rule,  on  the  social  position  of  the  investigator.  The  rabbis 
of  higher  rank,  who  took  an  active  part  in  the  Kahal  adminis- 
tration, and  participated  in  the  meetings  of  the  Councils,  either 
of  the  Crown  or  of  Lithuania,  paid  particular  attention  to  the 
practical  application  of  Talmudic  law.  One  of  the  oldest 
scholars  of  this  category  during  the  period  under  discussion 
was  Mordecai  Jaffe  (died  1613),  a  native  of  Bohemia,  who 
occupied  the  post  of  rabbi  successively  in  Grodno,  Lublin, 
Kremenetz,  Prague,  and  Posen.  Towards  the  end  of  the  six- 
teenth century  he  presided  a  number  of  times  over  the  confer- 
ences of  the  "  Council  of  the  Four  Lands."  Though  a  pupil 
of  Moses  Isserles,  Jaffe  did  not  consider  the  ShuUian  Arukh 
as  supplemented  by  his  teacher  the  last  word  in  codification. 
He  objected  to  the  fact  that  its  juridical  conclusions  were 
formulated  dogmatically,  without  sufficient  motivation. 

For  this  reason  he  undertook  the  composition  of  a  new  and 
more  elaborate  code  of  laws,  arranged  in  the  accepted  order  of 
the  four  books  of  the  Turim/  wdiich  is  known  as  Lebushim,  or 
"  Raiments." '     The  method  of  Mordecai  Jaffe  differs  from 

['See  p.  118,  n.  1.] 

t*  The  titles  of  the  various  parts  of  his  work  are  all  composed  of 
the  word  Lebush  ("Raiment")  and  some  additional  epithet,  bor- 
rowed, with  reference  to  the  author's  name,  from  the  description  of 
Mordecai's  garments,  in  Esther  viii.  15.] 
9 


128  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

that  of  Joseph  Caro  and  Isserles  in  the  wealth  oi'  the  scientific 
discussions  which  accompany  every  legal  clause.  At  first 
Jaffe's  code  created  a  split  in  the  rabbinical  world,  and 
threatened  to  weaken  the  authority  of  the  Shulhan  AruJch. 
In  the  end,  however,  the  latter  prevailed,  and  was  acknowledged 
as  the  only  authoritative  guide  for  the  religious  and  juridical 
practice  of  Judaism.  Apart  from  his  code,  Mordecai  Jaffe 
wrote,  under  the  same  general  title  Lebushim,  five  more 
volumes,  containing  Bible  commentaries,  synagogue  sermons, 
and  annotations  to  Maimonides'  "  Guide,"  as  well  as  Cabalistic 
speculations. 

Jaffe's  successor  as  leading  rabbi  and  president  of  the 
"  Council  of  the  Four  Lands  "  was,  in  all  likelihood,  Joshua 
Falk  Cohen  (died  1616),  Rabbi  of  Lublin  and  subsequently 
rector  of  the  Talmudic  yeshibah  in  Lemberg.  He  attained  to 
fame  through  his  commentary  to  the  Hoshen  Mishpat,  the  part 
of  Caro's  code  dealing  with  civil  law,'  which  he  called  Sepher 
Me'irath  'Endim,  "  A  Book  of  the  Enlightenment  of  the  Eyes  "  ^ 
(abbreviated  to  SeM'A).  He  also  framed,  at  the  instance  of 
tlie  Waad,  a  large  part  of  the  above-mentioned  regulations  of 
1607,'  which  were  issued  for  the  purpose  of  establishing  piety 
and  good  morals  more  firmly  among  the  Jews  of  Poland. 

A  more  scholastic  and  less  practical  tendency  is  noticeable 
in  the  labors  of  Joshua  Falk's  contemporary,  Meir  of  Lublin 
(1554-1616),  known  by  the  abbreviated  name  of  MaHaEaM.* 

['  The  Shulhan  Arukh,  following  the  arrangement  of  the  Turim 
(see  above,  p.  118,  n.  1),  is  divided  into  four  parts,  the  fourth 
of  which,  dealing  with  civil  law,  is  called  Hoshen  Mishpat,  "  Breast- 
plate of  Judgment,'  with  reference  to  Ex.  xxviii.  15.] 

[^Allusion  to  Ps.  xix.  9.1 

^  See  pp.  Ill  and  112. 

*  D"nnD  [initials  of  Aforenu  (see  p.  117,  n.  1)  Fa-rab  (the 
rabbi)  R&bhi  ilfeir.] 


THE  INNER  LIFE  AT  ITS  ZENITH  129 

He  was  active  as  rabbi  in  Cracow,  Lemberg,  and  Lublin,  deliv- 
ered Talniudic  discourses  before  large  audiences,  wrote  ingen- 
ious, casuistic  commentaries  to  the  most  important  treatises 
of  the  Talmud  (entitled  Meir  'Ene  Hahamim,  "  Enlightening 
the  Eyes  of  the  Wise  "),  and  was  busy  replying  to  the  numerous 
inquiries  addressed  to  him  by  scholars  from  all  parts  (Shaaloth 
u-Teshuhotli  Maharam).  Laying  particular  stress  on  subtle 
analysis,  Rabbi  Meir  of  Lublin  looked  down  upon  the  codifiers 
and  systematic  writers  of  the  class  to  which  Isserles  and 
Jaffe  belonged.  The  trifling  minuteness  of  his  invesi?iga- 
tions  may  be  illustrated  by  the  fact  that  he  considered  it 
necessary  to  write  a  special  "opinion"  about  the  question 
whether  a  woman  is  guilty  of  conjugal  infidelity,  if  she  is 
convicted  of  having  had  relations  with  the  devil,  the  latter 
having  visited  her  first  in  the  shape  of  her  husband  and  after- 
Avards  in  the  disguise  of  a  Polish  nobleman. 

In  the  domain  of  dialectics  Eabbi  Meir  found  a  successful 
rival  in  the  person  of  Samuel  Edels,  known  by  the  abbreviated 
name  of  MaHaRSHO '  (died  1631),  who  occupied  the  post 
of  rabbi  in  Posen,  Lublin,  and  Ostrog.  In  his  comprehensive 
expositions  to  all  the  sections  of  the  Talmudic  Halakha  (Hid- 
dushe  Halalchoth,  "Novel  Expositions  of  the  Halakha"),  he 
endeavored  principally  to  exercise  the  thinking  faculties  and 
the  memory  of  his  students  by  an  ingenious  comparison  of 
texts  and  by  other  scholastic  intricacies.  The  dialectic  com- 
mentary of  Edels  became  one  of  the  most  important  hand- 
books for  the  study  of  the  Talmud  in  the  heders  and  yeshibahs, 
and  is  frequently  used  there  in  our  own  days.  His  commentary 
on  the  Talmudic  Haggada  is  strewn  over  with  Cabalistic  and 

^    N"B''^rHD    [initials     of     Morenu     Ha-rah     Raibhi     SHemnel 
Eia  =o)dels.     Comp.   the   preceding  note]. 


130  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

religio-pliilosophic  ideas  of  the  couservative  Jewish  thinkers  of 
the  Middle  Ages. 

In  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century  the  authority  of  the 
Shullian  Arukh,  as  edited  by  Isserles,  had  been  so  firmly  estab- 
lished in  Poland  that  this  code  was  studied  and  expounded  with 
even  greater  zeal  than  the  Talmud.  Joel  Sirkis  (died  1640) 
delivered  lectures  on  Jewish  Law  on  the  basis  of  the  Turim 
and  the  Shulhan  Arukh.  He  wrote  a  commentary  to  the 
former  under  the  name  of  Beth  Hadash  ("  New  House,"  ab- 
breviated to  BaH),  and  published  a  large  number  of  opinions  on 
questions  of  religious  law.  He  held  the  Cabala  in  esteem,  while 
condemning  philosophy  violently.  His  younger  contempor- 
aries devoted  themselves  exclusively  to  the  exposition  of  the 
Shulhan  Arukh,  particularly  to  the  section  called  Yore  De'a,^ 
dealing  with  the  Jewish  ritual,  such  as  the  religious  customs  of 
the  home,  the  dietary  laws,  etc.  Two  elaborate  commentaries 
to  the  Yore  De'a  appeared  in  1G4G,  the  one  composed  by  David 
Halevi,  rabbi  in  Lemberg  and  Ostrog,  under  the  title  Ture 
Zahah,"  and  the  other  written  by  the  famous  Vilna  scholar 
Sabbatai  Kohen,  under  the  name  Sifthe  Kohen  ("  Lips  of 
the  Priest").*  These  two  commentaries,  known  by  their 
abbreviated  titles  of  TaZ  and  ShaK,  have  since  that  time  been 
published  together  with  the  text  of  the  Shulhan  Arukh. 

This  literary  productivity  was  largely  stimulated  by  the 
rapid  growth  of  Jewish  typography  in  Poland.    The  first  Jew- 

['  Literally,  "  Teaching  Knowledge  "  (from  Isaiah  xxviii.  9),  the 
title  of  the  second  part  of  the  Shulhan  Arukh.  See  above,  p.  128, 
n.  1.] 

[2 "Rows  of  Gold,"  allusion  to  the  Turim  (see  above,  p.  118,  n. 
1),  with  a  clever  play  on  the  similarly  sounding  words  in  Cant. 
1.  11. — Subsequently  David  Halevi  extended  his  commentary  to  the 
other  parts  of  the  Shulhan  Arukh.] 

['  Allusion  to  Mai.  ii.  7. — Later  Sabbatai  extended  his  com- 
mentary to  the  civil  section  of  the  Shulhan  Arukh,  called  Hoshen 
Mishpat  (see  p.  128,  n.  1).] 


THE  INNER  LIFE  AT  ITS  ZENITH  131 

ish  book  printed  iu  that  eouiitry  is  the  Pentateuch  (Cracow, 
1530).  In  the  second  half  of  the  sixteenth  century  two 
large  printing-presses,  those  of  Cracow  and  Lublin,  were  active 
in  publishing  a  vast  number  of  old  and  new  books  from  the 
domain  of  Talmudic,  Rabbinic,  and  popular-didactic  literature. 
In  1566  King  Sigismund  Augustus  granted  Benedict  Levita, 
of  Cracow,  the  monopoly  of  importing  into  Poland  Jewish 
books  from  abroad.  Again,  in  1578,  Stephen  Batory  bestowed 
on  a  certain  Kalman  the  right  of  printing  Jewish  books  in  Lub- 
lin, owing  to  the  difficulty  of  importing  them  from  abroad. 
One  of  the  causes  of  this  intensified  typographic  activity  in 
Poland  was  the  papal  censorship  of  the  Talmud,  which  was 
established  in  Italy  in  1564;.  From  that  time  the  printing- 
offices  of  Cracow  and  Lublin  competed  successfully  with  the 
technically  perfected  printing-presses  of  Venice  and  Prague, 
and  the  Polish  book-market,  as  a  result,  was  more  and  more 
dominated  by  local  editions. 

4.  Seculak  Sciences,  Philosophy,  Cabala,  and 
Apologetics 

The  Talmudic  and  Rabbinic  science  of  law,  absorbing  as  it 
did  the  best  mental  energies  of  Polish  Jewry,  left  but  little 
room  for  the  other  branches  of  literary  endeavor.  Among  the 
daring  "  swimmers  in  the  Talmudic  ocean,"  contending  for 
mastery  in  erudition  and  dialectic  skill,  there  were  but  few 
with  deeper  spiritual  longings  who  evinced  an  interest  in 
questions  of  philosophy  and  natural  science.  The  only  excep- 
tions were  the  physicians,  who,  on  account  of  their  profession, 
received  a  secular  education  at  the  universities  of  that  period. 

Originally  the  Jewish  physicians  of  Poland  were  natives 
either  of  Spain,  whence  they  had  been  expelled  in  1493,  or  of 


132  THE  JEWS   IN   RUSSIA    AND   POLAND 

Italy,  being  in  llic  latter  catjc  graduates  of  the  Catholic 
University  of  Padua.  Several  of  these  foreign  medical  men 
became  the  body-physicians  of  Polish  kings,  such  as  Isaac 
Hispanus  under  John  Albrecht  and  Alexander;  Solomon  Aah- 
kenazi  (who  subsequently  was  physician  and  diplomat  at 
the  court  of  the  Turkish  Sultan  Selim  II.)  under  King  Sigis- 
mund  Augustus;  Soiduion  C'alahora  under  Steplien  Batory, 
and  others.  But  as  early  as  the  first  part  of  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury these  foreigners  were  rivaled  by  native  Jewish  physicians, 
who  traveled  from  Poland  to  I'adua  lor  the  special  purpose  of 
receiving  a  medical  training.  Such  was,  for  example,  the  case 
in  1530  with  Moses  Fishel,  of  Cracow,  who  was  at  once  rabbi 
and  physician.  These  trips  to  Italy  became  very  frequent 
in  the  second  part  of  the  sixteenth  century,  and  the  number  of 
Polish  Jewish  students  in  Padua  was  on  the  increase  down 
to  the  eighteenth  century.  It  is  characteristic  that  the  Chris- 
tian Poles  studying  in  Padua  refused  to  enter  their  Jewish 
compatriots  upon  their  "  national  register,"  in  order,  as  is 
stated  in  their  statutes,  "  not  to  mar  the  memory  of  so  many 
celebrated  men  by  the  name  of  an  infidel"  (1654).  In  the 
university  registers  the  Jewish  students  appeared  as  Hehraei 
Poloni. 

As  for  religious  philosophy,  which  was  then  on  the  wane  in 
Western  Europe,  it  formed  in  Poland  merely  the  object  of 
amateurish  exercises  on  the  part  of  several  representatives  of 
Eabbinic  learning.  Moses  Isserles  and  Mordecai  Jaffe  com- 
mented, as  was  pointed  out  above,  on  the  "  Guide  "  of  Maimon- 
ides  in  a  superficial  manner,  fighting  shy  of  its  inconvenient 
rationalistic  deductions.  The  favorite  book  of  the  theologians 
of  that  period  was  Ikkarim  ("Principles"),  the  system  of 
dogmatic  Judaism  formulated  by  the  conservative  Sephardic 


THE  INNER  LIFE  AT  ITS  ZENITH  133 

thinker  Joseph  Albo.  Commentaries  to  this  book  were  written 
by  Jacob  Koppelman,  of  Brest-Kuyavsk  ^  {Ohel  Ya'koh,  "  Tent 
of  Jacob,"  ^  Cracow,  1599),  and  Gedaliah  Lifshitz,  of  Lublin 
{Etz  Shathul,  "  Planted  Tree,"'  1618).  The  former,  a  lover 
of  mathematics,  loaded  his  commentary  with  geometrical  and 
astronomical  arguments,  being  of  the  opinion  that  it  was  poss- 
ible in  this  way  to  prove  scientifically  the  existence  of  God  and 
the  correlation  of  all  phenomena.  The  latter  was  more  inclined 
towards  metaphysics  and  morals.  How  far  this  commentator 
was  from  grasping  the  true  meaning  of  the  original  may 
be  seen  from  his  annotations  to  the  introductory  theses  of 
the  book.  Commenting  on  the  passage  in  which  Albo  states 
that  "  the  happiness  of  man  depends  on  the  perfection  of  his 
thought  and  conduct,"  Lifshitz  makes  the  following  observa- 
tion: "  By  human  happiness  is  understood  the  life  beyond  the 
grave,  for  the  goal  of  man  in  this  world  consists  only  in  the 
attainment  of  eternal  bliss  after  death." 

In  this  way  the  Polish  rabbis  fashioned  philosophy  after  their 
own  pattern,  and  thereby  rendered  it  "  harmless."  Free  re- 
search was  impossible,  and  perhaps  not  unattended  by  danger 
in  an  environment  where  tradition  reigned  supreme.  The 
Chief  Eabbi  of  Cracow,  the  above-mentioned  Joel  Sirkis,  ex- 
pressed the  view  that  philosophy  was  the  mother  of  all  heresies, 
and  that  it  was  the  "  harlot "  of  which  the  wise  king  had  said, 
"None  that  go  unto  her  return  again"  (Proverbs  ii.  19). 
He  who  becomes  infatuated  with  philosophy  and  neglects  the 
secret  wisdom  of  the  Cabala  is  liable,  in  Sirkis'  opinion,  to 
excommunication,  and  has  no  place  among  the  faithful.  The 
well-known  mathematician  and  philosopher  Joseph  Solomon 

[^See  p.  75,  n.  2.1 
['Allusion  to  Gen.  xxv.  27.] 
['Allusion  to  Ps.  i.  3.] 


134  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

Delmedigo  (called  in  abbreviated  form  "  YaSHaR  of  Can- 
dia  "'),  who  spent  nearly  four  years  in  Poland  and  Lithuania 
(1620-1624),  arraigns  the  Polish  Jews  for  their  opposition  to 
the  secular  sciences : 

Behold — he  says  in  Biblical  phraseology  ^ — darkness  covereth  the 
earth,  and  the  ignorant  are  numerous.  For  the  breadth  of  thy 
land  is  full  of  yeshibahs  and  houses  of  Talmud  study.  .  .  .    [The 

Jews  of  Poland]  are  opposed  to  the  sciences saying,  The  Lord 

hath  no  delight  in  the  sharpened  arrows  of  the  grammarians,  poets, 
and  logicians,  nor  in  the  measurements  of  the  mathematicians  and 
the  calculations  of  the  astronomers. 

The  Cabala,  which  might  be  designated  as  an  Orthodox 
counter-philosophy,  made  constant  progress  in  Poland.  The 
founder  of  the  Polish  Cabala  was  Mattathiah  Delacruta,  a 
native  of  Italy,  who  lived  in  Cracow.  In  1594  he  published  in 
that  city  the  system  of  Theoretic  Cabala,  entitled  "  Gates  of 
Light  "  (Shaare  Ora),  by  a  Sephardic  writer  of  the  fourteenth 
century,  Joseph  Gicatilla,  accompanying  it  by  an  elaborate 
commentary  of  his  own.  Delacruta  was,  as  far  as  the  subject  of 
the  "  hidden  science  "  was  concerned,  the  teacher  of  the  versa- 
tile Rabbi  Mordecai  Jaffe,  who,  in  turn,  wrote  a  supercom- 
mentary  to  the  mystical  Bible  commentary  by  the  Italian 
Mcnahom  Recanati. 

Beginning  with  the  seventeenth  century,  the  old  Theoretic 
Cabala  is  gradually  superseded  in  Poland  by  the  Practical 
Cabala,'  taught  by  the  new  school  of  ARI  *  and  Vital.*    The 

*    Kn:p!OTiy*  [initials  of  Yosef  SHelomo  Rote  (physician)]. 

[*  In  his  book  Mwyan  Gannim  ("  Fountain  of  Gardens,"  allusion 
to  Cant.  iv.  15),  Introduction.] 

[^Kabbalah  ma'asith,  a  phase  of  the  Cabala  which  endeavors  to 
influence  the  course  of  nature  by  Cabalistic  practices,  in  other 
words,  by  performing  miracles.] 

['Initials  of  Ashkenazi  i?abbi  /saac  [Luria] ;  he  died  at  Safed 
in  Palestine  in  1572.] 

[*  Hayyim  Vital,  also  of  Safed,  died  1620.] 


THE  INNER  LIFE  AT  ITS  ZENITH  135 

Cabalist  Isaiah  Horowitz,  author  of  the  famous  work  on 
ascetic  morals  called  SHeLoH/  had  been  trained  in  the  yeshi- 
bahs  of  Cracow  and  Lemberg,  and  for  several  years  (1600- 
1606)  occupied  the  post  of  rabbi  in  Volhynia.  His  son,  Sheftel 
Horowitz,  who  was  rabbi  in  Posen  ( 1641-1658  )j  published  the 
mystical  work  of  his  father,  adding  from  his  own  pen  a  moralist 
treatise  under  the  title  Vave  ha-'Avnidim.^  Nathan  Spira, 
preacher  and  rector  of  the  Talmudic  academy  in  Cracow  (1585- 
1633),  made  a  specialty  of  the  Practical  Cabala.  His  more 
ingenious  than  thoughtful  book,  "  Discovering  Deep  Things  "  ' 
(Megalle  'Amukotli,  Cracow,  1637),  contains  an  exposition  in 
two  hundred  and  fifty-two  different  M-ays  of  Moses'  plea  before 
God  for  permission  to  enter  the  Promised  Land  (Deuteronomy 
iii.  23).  It  consists  of  an  endless  chain  of  Cabalistic  word- 
combinations  and  obscure  symbolic  allusions,  yielding  some 
inconceivable  deductions,  such  as  that  Moses  prayed  to  God 
concerning  the  appearance  of  the  two  Messiahs  of  the  house 
of  Joseph  and  David,  or  that  Moses  endeavored  to  elim- 
inate the  power  of  evil  and  to  expiate  in  advance  all  the  sins 
that  would  ever  be  committed  by  the  Jewish  people.  Nathan 
Spira  applied  to  the  Cabala  the  method  of  the  Eabbinical 
pilpul,  and  created  a  new  variety  of  dialectic  mysticism,  which 
was  just  as  far  removed  from  sound  theology  as  the  scholastic 
speculations  of  the  pilpulists  were  from  scientific  thinking. 
More  wholesome  and  more  closely  related  to  life  was  the 
trend  of  the  Jewish  apologetic  literature  which  sprang  up  in 
Poland  in  the  last  quarter  of  the  sixteenth  century.  The 
religious  unrest  which  had  been  engendered  by  the  Eefor- 

['  Abbreviation  of  SHne  Luhoth  ffa-brith,  "  The  Two  Tables  of 
the  Covenant"  (Deut.  ix.  15).] 

f'"  Hooks  of  the  Pillars,"  allusion  to  Ex.  xxvii.  11. J 
["Allusion  to  Job  xii.  22.] 


136  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

mation  gave  rise  to  several  rationalistic  sects  with  radical, 
anti-ecclesiastic  tendencies.  Nearest  of  all  to  the  tenets  of 
Judaism  was  the  sect  of  the  Anti-Trinitarians  (called  Unita- 
rians, Arians,  or  Socinians^),  who  denied  the  dogma  of  the 
Trinity  and  the  divine  nature  of  Jesus,  but  recognized  the 
religious  and  moral  teachings  of  the  Gospels.  Among  the  Anti- 
Trinitarian  leaders  were  the  theologian  Simon  Budny,  of 
Vilna,  and  Martin  Chekhovich,  of  Lublin.  Stung  by  the  fact 
that  the  Catholic  clergy  applied  to  them  the  contemptuous  ap- 
pellation of  "  Judaizers,"  or  semi-Jews,  the  sectarians  were 
anxious  to  demonstrate  to  the  world  that  their  doctrine  had 
nothing  in  common  with  Judaism.  For  this  purpose  they 
carried  on  oral  disputes  with  the  rabbis,  and  tried  to  expose 
the  "  Jewish  falsehoods  "  in  their  works. 

Martin  Chekhovich  was  particularly  zealous  in  holding  theo- 
logical disputations,  both  in  Lublin  and  in  other  cities,  "  with 
genuine  as  well  as  pseudo-Jews,"  The  results  of  these  disputa- 
tions are  embodied  in  several  chapters  of  his  books  entitled 
"Christian  Dialogues"  (1575)  and  "Catechism"  (1580). 
One  of  his  Jewish  opponents,  Jacob  (ISTahman)  of  Belzhytz," 
found  it  necessary  to  answer  him  in  public  in  a  little  book  writ- 
ten in  the  Polish  language  (Odpis  na  dyalogi  Czechowicza, 
"Retort  to  the  Dialogues  of  Chekhovich,"  1581).  Jacob  of 
Belzhytz  defends  the  simple  dogmas  of  Judaism,  and  accuses 
his  antagonists  of  desiring  to  arouse  hostility  to  the  Jewish 
people.  The  following  observation  of  Jacob  is  interesting  as 
showing  the  methods  of  disputation  then  in  vogue : 

['  See  above,  p.  91,  n.  1.  There  were,  however,  considerable 
differences  of  opinion  among  the  various  factions.] 

['  A  town  in  the  province  of  Lublin.  Jacob  became  subsequently 
court  physician  cf  Sigismund  III.;  see  Kraushar,  History ja  Zydow 
to  Polsce,  ii.  268,  n.  1.  On  his  name,  see  Geiger's  Nachgelassene 
Schriften,  iii.  213.] 


THE  INNER  LIFE  AT  ITS  ZENITH  137 

It  often  happens  that  a  Christian  puts  a  question  to  me  from 
Holy  Writ,  to  which  I  reply  also  from  Holy  Writ,  and  I  try  to 
argue  it  properly.  But  suddenly  he  will  pick  out  another  passage 
[from  the  Bible],  saying:  "  How  do  you  understand  this?  "  and 
thus  he  does  not  finish  the  first  question,  on  which  it  would  be 
necessary  to  dwell  longer.  This  is  exactly  what  happens  when 
the  hunter's  dogs  are  hounding  the  rabbit  which  flees  from  the 
road  into  a  by-path,  and,  while  the  dogs  are  trying  to  catch  it, 
slips  away  into  the  bushes.  For  this  reason  the  Jew  too  has  to 
interrupt  the  Christian  in  the  midst  of  his  speech,  lest  the  latter 
escape  like  the  rabbit  as  soon  as  he  has  finished  speaking. 

Chekhovich  rejalied  to  Jacob's  pamphlet  in  print  in  the  same 
year.  While  defending  his  "  Dialogues,"  he  criticized  the 
errors  of  the  Talmud,  and  made  sport  of  several  Jewish 
customs,  such  as  the  use  of  tefilUn,  mezuza,  and  tzitzith. 

A  serious  retort  to  the  Christian  theologians  came  from  Isaac 
Troki,  a  cultured  Karaite,^  who  died  in  1594.  He  argued 
with  Catholics,  Lutherans,  and  Arians  in  Poland,  not  as  a 
dilettante,  but  as  a  profound  student  of  the  Gospels  and  of 
Christian  theology.  About  1593  he  wrote  his  remarkable 
apologetic  treatise  under  the  title  Hizzuk  Eniuna  ("  Fortifica- 
tion of  the  Faith  ").  In  the  first  part  of  his  book,  the  author 
defends  Judaism  against  the  attacks  of  the  Christian  theo- 
logians, while  in  the  second  he  takes  the  olfensive  and  criticizes 
the  teachings  of  the  Church.  He  detects  a  whole  series  of  con- 
tradictions in  the  texts  of  the  Synoptic  Gospels,  pointing  out 
the  radical  deviations  of  the  New  Testament  from  the  Old  and 
the  departure  of  the  later  dogmatism  of  the  Church  from  the 
New  Testament  itself.  With  calmness  and  assurance  he  proves 
the  logical  and  historical  impossibility  of  the  interpretations  of 
the  well-known  Biblical  prophecies  which  serve  as  the  sub- 
structure of  the  Christian  dogma. 

^  Some  deny  that  he  was  a  Karaite. 


138  THE  JEWS  TN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

For  a  long  time  no  one  was  bold  onoiigli  to  })i-int  tliis  "  dread- 
ful treatise,"  and  it  was  circnlated  in  manuscript  both  in  the 
Hebrew  original  and  in  a  Spanish  and  German  version.  The 
Hebrew  original,  accompanied  by  a  Latin  translation,  was 
printed  for  the  first  time  from  a  defective  copy  by  the  German 
scholar  Wagenseil,  Professor  of  Law  in  Bavaria.  Wagenseil 
published  the  treatise  Hizzitk  Emvna  in  his  collection  of  anti- 
Christian  writings,  to  wliicli  he  gave  the  awe-inspiring  title 
"The  Fiery  Arrows  of  Satan"  (Tela  Ignea  Satanae,  1681), 
and  which  were  publislicd  for  missionary  purposes,  "  in  order 
that  the  Christians  may  refute  this  book,  which  may  otherwise 
fortify  the  Jews  in  their  errors."  The  pious  German  professor 
could  not  foresee  that  his  edition  would  be  subsequently  em- 
ployed by  men  of  the  type  of  Voltaire  and  the  French  ency- 
clopedists of  the  eighteenth  century  as  a  weapon  to  attack 
the  doctrine  of  the  Church.  Voltaire  commented  on  the  book 
of  Isaac  Troki  in  these  words :  "  Not  even  the  most  decided 
opponents  of  religion  have  brought  forward  any  arguments 
which  could  not  be  found  in  the  '  Fortification  of  the  Faith  ' 
by  Kabbi  Isaac."  In  modern  times  the  HizzuJc  Emuna  has 
been  reprinted  from  more  accurate  copies,  and  has  been  trans- 
lated into  several  European  languages.* 

[•  An  English  translation  by  Moses  Mocatta  appeared  in  London 
in  1851  under  the  title  "  Faith  Strengthened."] 


CHAPTER  V 

THE  AUTONOMOUS  CENTEE  IN  POLAND  DUEING 
ITS  DECLINE  (1648-1778) 

1.  Economic  and  National  Antagonism  in  the  Ukeaina 

The  Jewish  center  in  Poland,  marked  by  compactness  of 
numbers  and  a  widespread  autonomous  organization,  seemed, 
down  to  the  end  of  the  seventeenth  century,  to  be  the  only 
secure  nest  of  the  Jewish  people  and  the  legitimate  seat  of  its 
national  hegemony,  which  was  slipping  out  of  the  hands 
of  German  Jewry.  But  in  1648  this  comparatively  peace- 
ful nest  was  visited  by  a  storm,  which  made  the  Jews  of 
Eastern  Europe  speedily  realize  that  they  would  have  to  tread 
the  same  sorrowful  path,  strewn  with  the  bodies  of  martyrs,  that 
had  been  traversed  by  their  Western  European  brethren  in  the 
Middle  Ages.  The  factors  underlying  this  crisis  were  three :  an 
acute  economic  class  struggle,  racial  and  religious  antagonism, 
and  the  appearance  upon  the  horizon  of  Jewish  history  of  a  new 
power  of  darkness — the  semi-barbarous  masses  of  Southern 
Eussia. 

In  the  central  provinces  of  Poland  the  position  of  the  Jews, 
as  was  pointed  out  previously,  was  determined  by  the  inter- 
action of  class  and  economic  forces  on  the  one  hand,  and 
religious  and  political  interests  on  the  other,  changing  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  different  combinations  of  the  opposing  fac- 
tions. While  the  kings  and  the  great  nobles,  prompted  by 
fiscal  and  agrarian  considerations,  in  most  cases  encouraged  the 
commercial  activities  of  the  Jews,  the  urban  estates,  the  trade 
and  merchant  guilds,  from  motives  of  competition,  tried  to 


140  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

hinder  them.     As  for  the  Catholic  clergy,  it  was  on  general 
principles  ever  on  the  alert  to  oppress  the  "  infidels." 

As  far  as  economic  rivalry  and  social  oppression  are  con- 
cerned, the  Jews  were  able  to  resist  them,  either  by  influencing 
the  Polish  governing  circles,  or  by  combining  their  own  forces 
and  uniting  them  in  a  firmly-organized  scheme  of  self-govern- 
ment, which  had  been  conceded  to  them  in  so  large  a  measure. 
At  any  rate,  it  was  a  cultural  struggle  between  two  elements : 
the  Polish  and  the  Jewish  population,  the  Christian  and  the 
Jewish  estates,  or  the  Church  and  the  Synagogue.  This  strug- 
gle was  vastly  complicated  in  the  southeastern  border  prov- 
inces of  Poland,  the  so-called  Ukraina,'  by  the  presence  of  a 
third  element,  which  was  foreign  to  the  Poles  no  less  than  to 
the  Jews — the  local  native  population  which  was  Russian  by 
race  and  Greek  Orthodox  in  religion,  and  was  engaged  prin- 
cipally in  agriculture. 

The  vast  region  around  the  southern  basin  of  the  Dnieper, 
the  whole  territory  comprising  the  provinces  of  Kiev,  Poltava, 
and  Chernigov,  and  including  parts  of  Podolia  and  Volhynia, 
was  subject  to  the  political  power  of  the  Polish  kings  and  the 
economic  dominion  of  the  Polish  magnates.  Enormous  estates, 
comprising  a  large  number  of  villages  populated  by  Eussian 
peasants,  were  here  in  the  hands  of  wealthy  Polish  land- 
lords, who  enjoyed  all  the  rights  of  feudal  owners.  The 
enthralled  peasants,  or  khlops,  as  they  were  contemptuously 
nicknamed  by  the  Polish  nobles,  were  strange  to  their  masters 
in  point  of  religion  and  nationality.  In  the  eyes  of  the  Catho- 
lics, particularly  in  those  of  the  clergy,  the  Greek  Orthodox 
faith  was  a  "  religion  of  khlops,"  and  they  endeavored  to  cradl- 
es Pronounced  Ookraina.  The  spelling  "  Ukraine  "  is  less  correct. 
The  meaning  of  the  word  is  "  border,"  "  frontier."] 


THE  CENTER  DURING  ITS  DECLINE  141 

cate  it  by  forcing  upon  it  compulsory  church  unions  *  or  by 
persecuting  the  "  dissidents."  The  Poles  looked  upon  the 
Russian  populace  as  an  inferior  race,  which  belonged  more  to 
Asia  than  to  Europe.  In  these  circumstances,  the  economic 
struggle  between  the  feudal  landlord  and  his  serfs,  unmiti- 
gated by  the  feeling  of  common  nationality  and  religion,  was 
bound  to  assume  acute  forms.  Apart  from  the  oppressive  agri- 
cultural labor,  which  the  peasants  had  to  give  regularly  and 
gratuitously  to  the  landlord,  they  were  burdened  with  a  multi- 
tude of  minor  imposts  and  taxes,  levied  on  pastures,  mills, 
hives,  etc.  The  Polish  magnates  lived,  as  a  rule,  far  away  from 
their  Ukrainian  possessions,  leaving  the  management  of  the 
latter  in  the  hands  of  stewards  and  arendars. 

Among  these  rural  arendars  there  were  many  Jews,  who 
principally  leased  from  the  pans  the  right  of  "  propination,'"' 
or  the  sale  of  spirituous  liquors.  These  leases  had  the  effect  of 
transferring  to  the  Jews  some  of  the  powers  over  the  Pius- 
sian  serfs  which  were  wielded  by  the  noble  landowners.  The 
Jewish  arendar  endeavored  to  derive  as  much  profit  from  the 
nobleman's  estate  as  the  owner  himself  would  have  derived 
had  he  lived  there.  But  under  the  prevailing  conditions  of  serf- 
dom these  profits  could  be  extracted  only  by  a  relentless 
exploitation  of  the  peasants.  Moreover,  the  contemptuous  atti- 
tude of  the  Shlakhta  and  the  Catholic  clergy  towards  the 
*'  religion  of  khlops,"  and  their  endeavors  to  force  the  Greek 
Orthodox  serfs  into  Catholicism,  by  Imposing  upon  them  an 
ecclesiastic  union,  gave  a   sharp  religious  coloring  to  this 

['  The  author  refers  to  the  compulsory  establishment  of  the  so- 
called  Uniat  Church,  which  follows  the  rites  and  traditions  of  the 
Greek  Orthodox  faith,  but  submits  at  the  same  time  to  the  juris- 
diction of  the  Roman  See.  The  Uniat  Church  is  still  largely  repre- 
sented in  Eastern  Galicla  among  the  Ruthenians.] 


142  THE  JEWS   IN   RUSSIA   AND   POLANI> 

economic  antagonism.  The  oppressed  peasantry  reacted  to 
this  treatment  with  ominous  murmurings  and  agrarian  dis- 
turbances in  several  places.  The  enslaved  South  Russian 
muzhik  hated  the  Polish  pan  in  his  capacity  as  landlord,  Catho- 
lic, and  Lakh.'  No  less  intensely  did  he  hate  the  Jewish  aren- 
dar,  with  whom  he  came  in  daily  contact,  and  whom  he  regarded 
both  as  a  steward  of  the  pan  and  an  "  infidel,"  entirely 
foreign  to  him  on  account  of  his  religious  customs  and  habits 
of  life.  Thus  the  Ukrainian  Jew  found  himself  between 
hammer  and  anvil :  between  the  pan  and  the  khlop,  between  the 
Catholic  and  the  Greek  Orthodox,  between  the  Pole  and  the 
Russian.  Three  claSvSes,  three  religions,  and  three  nationalities, 
clashed  on  a  soil  which  contained  in  its  bowels  terrible  volcanic 
forces — and  a  catastrophe  was  bound  to  follow. 

The  Soutli  Russian  population,  though  politically  and  agri- 
culturally dependent  upon  the  Poles,  was  far  from  being  that 
patient  "  beast  of  burden  "  into  which  the  rule  of  serfdom 
tried  to  transform  it.  ^fany  circumstances  combined  to  fos- 
ter a  warlike  spirit  in  this  population.  The  proximity  of  the 
New  Russian  steppes  and  the  Khanate  of  the  Crimea,  whence 
hordes  of  Tatars  often  burst  forth  to  swoop  down  like  birds  of 
prey  upon  the  eastern  provinces  of  Poland,  compelled  the  inhab- 
itants of  the  Ukraina  to  organize  themselves  into  warlike  com- 
panies, or  Cossacks,'  to  fight  off  the  invaders.  The  Polish  Gov- 
ernment, acting  through  its  local  governors  or  starostas,  en- 

['  A  contemptuous  nickname  for  Pole.  ] 

[=  The  word  "Cossack,"  in  Russian,  Eazak  (with  the  accent  on 
the  last  syllable),  is  derived  from  the  Tataric.  "  Cossackdom  " — 
says  Kostomarov,  in  his  Russian  standard  work  on  the  Cossack  up- 
rising {Bogdan  Khyiielnitzki.  i.  p.  5) — "  is  undoubtedly  of  Tataric 
origin,  and  so  is  tlie  very  name  Kozak.  which  in  Tataric  means 
'  vagrant,"  '  free  warrior.'  '  rider.'  "  Peter  Kropotkin  (Encyclopedia 
Britannica,  11th  edition,  vii.  218)  similarly  derives  the  word  from 
Turki  KuzzCik,  "adventurer,"  "freebooter.'"] 


THE  CENTER  DURING  ITS  DECLINE  143 

couraged  the  formation  of  these  companies  for  the  defense  of 
the  borders  of  the  Empire.  In  this  way  Ukrainian  Cossack- 
dom,  a  semi-military,  semi-agricultural  caste,  came  into  being, 
with  an  autonomous  organization  and  its  own  hetman '  at 
the  head. 

Apart  from  the  Ukrainian  Cossacks,  who  were  subject  to  the 
Polish  Government,  there  were  also  the  so-called  Zaporozhian  * 
Cossacks,  a  completely  independent  military  organization 
which  lived  beyond  the  Falls  of  the  Dnieper,  in  the  steppes  of 
so-called  New  Russia,  the  present  Governments  of  Yeka- 
terinoslav  and  Kherson,  and  indulged  in  frequent  raids  upon 
the  Turks  and  in  constant  warfare  with  the  Tatars  of  the 
Crimea.  This  military  camp,  or  syechf  beyond  the  Falls  of  the 
Dnieper  attracted  many  khlops  from  the  Ukraina,  who  pre- 
ferred a  free,  unrestricted  military  life  to  the  dreary  existence 
of  laboring  slaves.  The  syech  represented  a  primitive  military 
republic,  where  daring,  pluck,  and  knightly  exploits  were 
valued  above  all.  It  was  a  semi-barbarous  Tatar  horde,  except 
that  it  professed  the  Greek  Orthodox  faith,  and  was  of  Rus- 
sian origin,  though,  by  the  way,  with  a  considerable  admixture 
of  Mongolian  blood.  The  Ukrainian  and  Zaporozhian  Cos- 
sacks were  in  constant  relations  with  each  other.  The  peasants 
of  the  Ukraina  looked  up  with  pride  and  hope  to  this  their 
national  guard,  which  sooner  or  later  was  bound  to  free  them 
from  the  rule  of  the  Poles  and  Jews.  The  Polish  Government 
failed  to  perceive  that  on  the  eastern  borders  of  the  Empire 
a  mass  of  explosives  was  constantly  accumulating,  which 
threatened  to  wreck  the  whole  Polish  Republic. 

[*  Derived  from  the  German  word  Hauptmann.] 

P  From   the  Russian   word   Za  porogi,   meaning   "  beyond   the 

Falls"  (scil.  of  the  Dnieper).] 

['  Literally,  "  cutting,"  i.  e.  the  cutting  of  a  forest.     Originally 

the  Cossacks  entered  those  regions  as  colonists  and  pioneers.] 
10 


144  THE  JEWS   IN  RUSSIA   AND  POLAND 

Nor  could  the  Jews  foresee  that  this  terrible  force  would  be 
directed  against  them,  aud  would  stain  with  blood  many 
pages  of  their  history,  serving  as  a  terrible  onion  for  the 
future.  The  first  warning  was  sounded  in  1637,  when  the 
Cossack  leader  Pavluk  suddenly  appeared  from  beyond  the 
Falls  in  the  province  of  Poltava,  inciting  the  peasants  to  rise 
against  the  pans  and  the  Jews.  The  rebels  demolished  several 
synagogues  in  the  town  of  Lubny  and  in  neighboring  places, 
and  killed  about  two  hundred  Jews.  The  real  catastrophe, 
however,  came  ten  years  later.  The  mutiny  of  the  Cossacks 
and  the  Ukrainian  peasants  in  1648  inaugurates  in  the  history 
of  the  Jews  of  Eastern  Europe  tlie  era  of  pogroms,  which 
Southern  Russia  bequeathed  to  future  generations  down  to  the 
beginning  of  the  twentieth  century. 

2.  The  Pogroms  and  Massacues  of  1648-1649 

In  the  spring  of  1648,  while  King  Vladislav  IV.  still  sat  on 
the  throne  of  Poland,  one  of  the  popular  Cossack  leaders,  Bog- 
dan  Khmelnitzki,  from  the  town  of  Chigirin,  in  the  province 
of  Kiev,  unfurled  the  banner  of  rebellion  in  the  Ukraina  and 
in  the  region  beyond  the  Dnieper  Falls.  Infuriated  by  the 
conduct  of  the  Polish  authorities  of  his  native  place,'  Khmel- 
nitzki began  to  incite  the  Ukrainian  Cossacks  to  armed  resist- 
ance. They  elected  him  secretly  their  hetman,  and  empowered 
him  to  conduct  negotiations  with  the  Zaporozhians.  Having 
arrived  in  the  region  beyond  the  Dnieper  Falls,  he  organized 
military  companies,  and  concluded  an  alliance  with  the  Khan 
of  the  Crimea,  who  entered  into  a  compact  to  send  large  troops 
of  Tatars  to  the  aid  of  the  rebels. 

*  According  to  legend,  the  chief  of  the  district  had  pillaged 
Khmelnitzki's  tent,  carried  off  his  wife,  and  flogged  his  son  to 

death. 


THE  CENTER  DURING  ITS  DECLINE  145 

In  April,  1648,  the  combined  hosts  of  the  Cossacks  and  Ta- 
tars moved  from  beyond  the  Falls  of  the  Dnieper  to  the  borders 
of  the  Ukraina.  In  the  neighborhood  of  the  Yellow  Waters  and 
Korsun  they  inflicted  a  severe  defeat  on  the  Polish  army  under 
the  command  of  Pototzki  and  Kalinovski  (May  6-15),  and  this 
defeat  served  as  a  signal  for  the  whole  region  on  the  eastern 
banks  of  the  Dnieper  to  rise  in  rebellion.  The  Eussian  peas- 
ants and  town  dwellers  left  their  homes,  and,  organizing  them- 
selves into  bands,  devastated  the  estates  of  the  pans,  slaying 
their  owners  as  well  as  the  stewards  and  Jewish  arendars.  In 
the  to^Tis  of  Pereyaslav,  Piryatin,  Lokhvitz,  Lubny,  and  the 
surrounding  country,  thousands  of  Jews  were  barbarously 
killed,  and  their  property  was  either  destroyed  or  pillaged. 
The  rebels  allowed  only  those  to  survive  who  embraced  the 
Greek  Orthodox  faith.  The  Jews  of  several  cities  of  the  Kiev 
region,  in  order  to  escape  from  the  hands  of  the  Cossacks,  fled 
into  the  camp  of  the  Tatars,  and  gave  themselves  up  volun- 
tarily as  prisoners  of  war.  They  knew  that  the  Tatars  re- 
frained as  a  rule  from  killing  them,  and  transported  them 
instead  into  Turkey,  where  they  were  sold  as  slaves,  and  had  a 
chance  of  being  ransomed  by  their  Turkish  coreligionists. 

At  that  juncture,  in  the  month  of  May,  King  Vladislav  IV. 
died,  and  an  interregnum  ensued,  which,  marked  by  poli- 
tical unrest,  lasted  six  months.  The  flame  of  rebellion  seized 
the  whole  of  the  Ukraina,  as  well  as  Volhynia  and  Podolia. 
Bands  composed  of  Cossacks  and  Russian  peasants  led  by 
Khmelnitzki's  accomplices,  savage  Zaporozhian  Cossacks,  dis- 
persed in  all  directions,  and  began  to  exterminate  Poles  and 
Jews.    To  quote  a  Russian  historian : 

Killing  was  accompanied  by  barbarous  tortures;  the  victims 
were  fiayed  alive,  split  asunder,  clubbed  to  death,  roasted  on  coals, 


146  THE  JEWS   IN  RUSSIA   AND  POLAND 

or  scalded  with  boiling  water.  Eveu  infants  at  the  breast  were  not 
spared.  The  most  terrible  cruelty,  however,  was  shown  towards 
the  Jews.  They  were  destined  to  utter  annihilation,  and  the 
slightest  pity  shown  to  them  was  looked  upon  as  treason.  Scrolls  of 
the  Law  were  taken  out  of  the  synagogues  by  the  Cossacks,  who 
danced  on  them  while  drinking  whiskey.  After  this  Jews  were 
laid  down  upon  them,  and  butchered  without  mercy.  Thousands 
of  Jewish  infants  were  thrown  into  wells,  or  buried  alive. 

Contemporary  Jewish  chroniclers  add  that  these  human 
beasts  purposely  refrained  from  finishing  their  victims,  so  as  to 
be  able  to  torture  them  longer.  They  cut  off  their  hands  and 
feet,  split  the  children  asunder,  "  fish-like,"  or  roasted  them  on 
fire.  They  opened  the  bowels  of  women,  inserted  live  cats,  and 
then  sewed  up  the  wounds.  The  unbridled  bestiality  of  in- 
toxicated savages  found  expression  in  these  frightful  tortures, 
of  which  even  the  Tatars  were  incapable. 

Particularly  tragic  was  the  fate  of  those  Jews  who,  in  the 
hope  of  greater  safety,  had  fled  from  the  villages  and  townlets 
to  the  fortified  cities.  Having  learned  that  several  thousand 
Jews  had  taken  refuge  in  the  town  of  Niemirov  in  Podolia, 
Khmelnitzki  dispatched  thither  a  detachment  of  Cossacks 
under  the  command  of  the  Zaporozhian  Gania.  Finding  it 
difficult  to  take  the  city  by  storm,  the  Cossacks  resorted  to  a 
trick.  They  drew  nigh  to  Niemirov,  carrying  aloft  the  Polish 
banners  and  requesting  admission  into  the  city.  The  Jews, 
fooled  into  believing  that  it  was  a  Polish  army  that  had  come 
to  their  rescue,  opened  the  gates  (Sivan  30= June  10,  1648). 
The  Cossacks,  in  conjunction  with  the  local  Russian  inhabit- 
ants, fell  upon  the  Jews  and  massacred  them ;  the  women  and 
girls  were  violated.  The  Rabbi  and  Rosh-Yeshibah  of  Niemi- 
rov, Jehiel  Michael  ben  Eliezer,  hid  himself  in  the  cemetery 
with  his  mother,  hoping  in  this  wise  at  least  to  be  buried  after 


THE  CENTER  DURING  ITS  DECLINE  147 

death.  There  he  was  seized  by  oue  of  the  rioters,  a  shoemaker, 
who  began  to  club  him.  His  aged  mother  begged  the  murderer 
to  Icill  her  instead  of  her  son,  but  the  inhuman  shoemaker 
killed  first  the  rabbi  and  then  the  aged  woman. 

The  young  Jewish  women  were  frequently  allowed  to  live, 
the  Cossacks  and  peasants  forcing  them  into  baptism  and  tak- 
ing them  for  wives.  One  beautiful  Jewish  girl  who  had  been 
kidnaped  for  this  purpose  by  a  Cossack  managed  to  convince 
him  that  she  was  able  to  throw  a  spell  over  bullets.  She  asked 
him  to  shoot  at  her,  so  as  to  prove  to  him  that  the  bullet  would 
glide  off  without  causing  her  any  injury.  The  Cossack  dis- 
charged his  gun,  and  the  girl  fell  down,  mortally  wounded,  yet 
happy  in  the  knoAvledge  that  she  was  saved  from  a  worse  fate. 
Another  Jewish  girl,  whom  a  Cossack  w^as  on  the  point  of 
marrying,  threw  herself  from  the  bridge  into  the  water, 
while  the  wedding  procession  was  marching  to  the  church. 
Altogether  about  six  thousand  Jews  perished  in  the  city  of 
Niemirov. 

Those  who  escaped  death  fled  to  the  fortified  Podolian 
town  of  Tulchyn.  Here  an  even  more  terrible  tragedy  was 
enacted.  A  large  horde  of  Cossacks  and  peasants  laid  siege 
to  the  fortress,  which  contained  several  hundred  Poles  and 
some  fifteen  hundred  Jews.  The  Poles  and  Jews  took  an  oath 
not  to  betray  one  another  and  to  defend  the  city  to  their  last 
breath.  The  Jews,  stationed  on  the  walls  of  the  fortress,  shot 
at  the  besiegers,  keeping  them  off  from  the  city.  After  a  long 
and  unsuccessful  siege  the  Cossacks  conceived  a  treacherous 
plan.  They  informed  the  Poles  of  Tulchyn  that  they  were  aim- 
ing solely  at  the  Jews,  and,  as  soon  as  the  latter  were  delivered 
into  their  hands,  they  would  leave  the  Poles  in  peace.  The 
Polish  pans,  headed  by  Count  Chetvertinski,  forgot  their  oath. 


148  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

and  decided  to  sacrifice  their  Jewish  allies  to  secure  their  own 
safety.  When  the  Jews  discovered  this  treaclierous  intention, 
they  immediately  resolved  to  dispose  of  the  Poles,  whom  they 
excelled  in  numbers.  But  the  Rosh-Yeshibah  of  TulchjTi, 
Habbi  Aaron,  implored  them  not  to  touch  the  pans,  on  the 
ground  that  such  action  mij^lit  draw  upon  the  Jews  all  over  the 
Empire  the  hatred  of  the  Polish  population.  "  Let  us  rather 
perish,"  he  exclaimed,  "as  did  our  brethren  in  Niemirov.  and 
let  us  not  endanger  the  lives  of  our  brethren  in  all  the  places  of 
their  dispersion."  The  Jews  yielded.  They  turned  over  all 
their  property  to  Chetvertinski,  asking  him  to  offer  it  to  the 
Cossacks  as  a  ransom  for  their  lives. 

After  entering  the  city,  the  Cossacks  first  took  possession  of 
the  property  of  the  Jews,  and  then  drove  them  together  into  a 
garden,  where  they  put  up  a  banner  and  declared,  "  Let  those 
who  are  willing  to  accept  baptism  station  themselves  under  this 
banner,  and  we  will  spare  their  lives."  The  rabbis  exhorted 
the  people  to  accept  martyrdom  for  the  sake  of  their  religion 
and  their  people.  Not  a  single  Jew  was  willing  to  become  a 
traitor,  and  fil'teen  hundred  victims  were  murdered  in  a  most 
barbarous  fashion.  Nor  did  the  perfidious  Poles  escape  their 
fate.  Another  detachment  of  Cossacks,  which  entered  Tulch}Ti 
later,  slew  all  the  Catholics,  among  them  Count  Chetvertinski. 
Treachery  avenged  treachery. 

From  Podolia  the  rebel  bands  penetrated  into  Volhynia. 
?Iere  the  massacres  continued  in  the  course  of  the  whole  sum- 
mer and  autumn  of  1648.  In  the  town  of  Polonnoye  ten 
thousand  Jews  met  their  death  at  the  hands  of  the  Cossacks, 
or  were  taken  captive  by  the  Tatars.  Among  the  victims 
was  the  Cabalist  Samson  of  Ostropol,  who  was  greatly  revered 
by  the  people.    This  Cabalist,  and  three  hundred  pious  fellow- 


THE  CENTER  DURING  ITS  DECLINE  149 

Jews  who  followed  him,  put  on  their  funeral  garments,  the 
shrouds  and  prayer  shawls,  and  offered  up  fervent  prayers  in 
the  synagogue,  awaiting  death  in  the  sacred  place,  where  the 
murderers  subsequently  killed  them  one  by  one.  Similar  massa- 
cres took  place  in  Zaslav,  Ostrog,  Constantinov,  Narol,  Kreihe- 
netz.  Bar,  and  many  other  cities.  The  Ukraina  as  well  as  Vol- 
hynia  and  Podolia  were  turned  into  one  big  slaughter-house. 

The  Polish  troops,  particularly  those  under  the  brave  com- 
mand of  Count  Jeremiah  Vishniovetzki,  succeeded  in  subduing 
the  Cossacks  and  peasants  in  several  places,  annihilating  some 
of  their  bands  with  the  same  cruelty  that  the  Cossacks  had  dis- 
played towards  the  Poles  and  the  Jews.  The  Jews  fled  to  these 
troops  for  their  safety,  and  they  were  welcomed  by  Vishnio- 
vetzki, who  admitted  the  unfortunates  into  the  baggage  train, 
and,  to  use  the  expression  of  a  Jewish  chronicler,  took  care  of 
them  "  as  a  father  of  his  children."  After  the  catastrophe  of 
Niemirov  he  entered  the  city  with  his  army,  and  executed  the 
local  rioters  who  had  participated  in  the  murder  of  the  Jewish 
inhabitants.  However,  standing  all  alone,  he  was  unable  to 
extinguish  the  flame  of  the  Cossack  rebellion.  For  the  com- 
manders-in-chief of  the  Polish  army  did  not  display  the  proper 
energy  at  this  critical  moment,  and  Khmelnitzki  was  right  in 
dubbing  them  contemptuously  " featherbeds,"  "youngsters," 
and  "  Latins  "•  ("  bookworms  ") . 

From  the  Ukraina  bands  of  rebellious  peasants,  or  haida- 
machs,  penetrated  into  the  nearest  towns  of  White  Eussia 
and  Lithuania.  From  Chernigov  and  Starodub,  where  the 
Jewish  inhabitants  had  been  exterminated,  the  murderers 
moved  towards  the  city  of  Homel  (July  or  August).  A  con- 
trmporary  gives  the  following  description  of  the  Homel  mas- 
iiaere : 


150  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

The  rebels  managed  to  bribe  the  head  of  the  city,  who  delivered 
the  Jews  into  their  hands.  The  Greeks  [Ycvanim,  i.  e.  the  Greek 
Orthodox  Russians]  surrounded  them  with  drawn  swords,  and  with 
daggers  and  spears,  exclaiming:  "Why  do  you  believe  in  your 
God,  who  has  no  pity  on  His  suffering  people,  and  does  not  save 
It  from  our  hands?  Reject  your  God,  and  you  shall  be  masters! 
But  if  you  will  cling  to  the  faith  of  your  fathers,  you  shall  all 
perish  in  the  same  way  as  your  brethren  in  the  Ukraina,  in 
Pokutye,'  and  Litliuania  perished  at  our  hands."  Thereupon  Rabbi 
Eliezer,  our  teacher,  the  president  of  the  [rabbinical]  court,  ex- 
claimed: "  Brethren,  remember  the  death  of  our  fellow-Jews,  who 
perished  to  sanctify  the  name  of  our  God!  Let  us  too  stretch 
forth  our  necks  to  the  sword  of  the  enemy;  look  at  me  and  act 
as  I  do!  "  Immediately  thousands  of  Jews  renounced  their  lives, 
despised  this  world,  and  hallowed  the  name  of  God.  The  Rosh- 
Veshibah  was  the  first  to  offer  up  his  body  as  a  burnt-offering. 
Young  and  old,  boys  and  girls  saw  the  tortures,  sufferings,  and 
wounds  of  the  teacher,  who  did  not  cease  exhorting  them  to 
accept  martyrdom  in  the  name  of  Him  who  had  called  into  being 
the  generations  of  mortals.  As  one  man  they  all  exclaimed: 
"  Let  us  forgive  one  another  our  mutual  insults.  Let  us  offer 
up  our  souls  to  God  and  our  bodies  to  the  wild  waves,  to  our 
enemies,  the  offspring  of  the  Greeks!"  When  our  enemies  heard 
these  words,  they  started  a  terrible  butchery,  killing  their  victims 
with  spears  in  order  that  they  might  die  slowly.  Husbands,  wives, 
and  children  fell  in  heaps.  They  did  not  even  attain  to  burial, 
dogs  and  swine  feeding  on  their  dead  bodies. 

In  September,  1G48,  Khmelnitzki  himself,  marching  at  thr; 
head  of  a  Cossack  army,  and  accompanied  by  his  Tatar  allie?, 
approached  the  -walls  of  Lemberg,  and  began  to  besiege  the  capi- 
tal of  Red  Russia,  or  Galicia.  The  Cossacks  succeeded  in 
storming  and  pillaging  the  suburbs,  but  they  failed  to  pene- 
trate to  the  fortified  center  of  the  toMTi.      Khmelnitzki  pro- 

['  In  Polish,  Pokucie.  name  of  a  region  in  the  southeast  of  the 
Polish  Empire,  between  Hungary  and  the  Bukowina.  Its  capital 
was  the  Galician  city  Kolomea.] 


THE  CENTER  DURING  ITS  DECLINE  151 

posed  to  the  magistracy  of  Lemberg,  that  it  deliver  all  the 
Jews  and  their  property  into  the  hands  of  the  Cossacks,  prom- 
ising in  this  case  to  raise  the  siege.  The  magistracy  replied 
that  the  Jews  were  imder  the  jurisdiction  of  the  king,  and 
the  town  authorities  had  no  right  to  dispose  of  them.  Khmel- 
nitzki  thereupon  agreed  to  withdraw,  having  obtained  from  the 
city  an  enormous  ransom,  the  bulk  of  which  had  been  con- 
tributed by  the  Jews. 

From  Lemberg  Khmelnitzki  proceeded  with  his  troops  in  the 
direction  of  Warsaw,  where  at  that  time  the  election  of  a  new 
king  was  taking  place.  The  choice  fell  upon  John  Casimir, 
a  brother  of  Vladislav  IV.,  who  had  been  Primate  of 
Gnesen  and  a  Cardinal  (1648-1668).  The  new  King  entered 
into  peace  negotiations  with  the  leader  of  the  rebels,  the  hetmau 
Khmelnitzki.  But  owing  to  the  excessive  demands  of  the  Cos- 
sacks the  negotiations  were  broken  off,  and  as  a  result,  in  the 
spring  of  1649,  the  flame  of  civil  war  flared  up  anew,  accom- 
panied by  the  destruction  of  many  more  Jewish  communities. 
After  a  succession  of  battles  in  which  the  Poles  were  defeated, 
a  treaty  of  peace  was  concluded  between  John  Casimir  and 
Khmelnitzki,  in  the  town  of  Zborov.  In  this  treaty,  which  was 
favorable  to  the  Cossacks,  a  clause  was  included  forlndding  the 
residence  of  Jews  in  the  portion  of  the  Ukraina  inhabited  by  the 
Cossacks,  the  regions  of  Chernigov,  Poltava,  Kiev,  and  partly 
Podolia  (August,  1649). 

At  last  the  Jews,  after  a  year  and  a  half  of  sufl'ering  and 
tortures,  could  heave  a  sigh  of  relief.  Those  of  them  who, 
at  the  point  of  death,  had  embraced  the  Greek  Orthodox 
faith,  were  permitted  by  King  John  Casimir  to  return  to  their 
old  creed.  The  Jewish  women  who  had  been  forcibly  baptized 
fled  in  large  numbers  from  their  Cossack  husbands,  and  re- 


152  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

turned  to  their  families.  The  Council  of  the  Four  Lands, 
which  met  in  Lublin  in  the  winter  of  1650,  framed  a  set  of 
regulations  looking  to  the  restoration  of  normal  conditions 
in  the  domestic  and  communal  life  of  the  Jews.  The  day  of 
the  Niemirov  massacre  (Sivan  20),  which  coincided  with  an 
old  fast  day  in  memory  of  the  martyrs  of  the  Crusades,  was 
appointed  a  day  of  mourning,  to  commemorate  the  victims 
of  the  Cossack  rebellion.  Leading  rabbis  of  the  time  composed 
a  number  of  soul-stirring  dirges  and  prayers,  which  were 
recited  in  the  synagogues  on  the  fateful  anniversary  of  the 
twentieth  of  Sivan. 

But  the  respite  granted  to  the  Jews  after  these  terrible  events 
did  not  last  long.  The  Treaty  of  Zborov,  which  was  unsatisfac- 
tory to  the  Polish  Government,  was  not  adhered  to  by  it.  Mutual 
resentment  gave  rise  to  new  collisions,  and  civil  war  broke  out 
again,  in  1651.  The  Polish  Government  called  together  the 
national  militia,  which  included  a  Jewish  detachment  of  one 
thousand  men.  This  time  the  people's  army  got  the  upper 
hand  against  the  troops  of  Khmelnitzki,  with  the  result  that  a 
treaty  of  peace  was  concluded  which  was  advantageous  to  the 
Poles.  In  the  Treaty  of  Byelaya  Tzerkov,  concluded  in  Sep- 
tember, 1651,  many  claims  of  the  Cossacks  were  rejected,  and 
the  right  of  the  Jews  to  live  in  the  Greek  Orthodox  portion 
of  the  Ukraina  was  restored.* 

As  a  result,  the  Cossacks  and  Greek  Orthodox  Ukrainians 
rose  again.  Bogdan  Klmaelnitzki  entered  into  negotiations 
with  the  Russian  Tzar  Alexis  Michaelovich,  looking  to  the 
incorporation,  with  the  rights  of  an  autonomous  province,  of 

'The  clause  in  question  runs  as  follows:  "The  Jews,  even  as 
they  formerly  were  residents  and  arendars  on  the  estates  of  his 
Royal  Majesty,  as  well  as  on  the  estates  of  the  Shlakhta,  shall 
equally  be  so  in  the  future." 


THE  CENTER  DURING  ITS  DECLINE  153 

the  Greek  Orthodox  portion  of  the  Ukraina,  under  the  name  of 
Little  Russia,  into  the  Muscovite  Empire.  In  1654  this  incor- 
poration took  place,  and  in  the  same  year  the  Russian  army 
marched  upon  White  Russia  and  Lithuania  to  wage  war  on 
Poland.  Now  came  the  turn  of  the  Jews  of  the  northwestern 
region  to  endure  their  share  of  suffering, 

3.  The  Russian  and  Swedish  Invasions  (1654-1658) 

The  alliance  of  their  enemies,  the  Cossacks,  with  the  rulers  of 
]\Iuscovy,  a  country  which  had  always  felt  a  superstitious  dread 
of  the  people  of  other  lands  and  religions,  was  fraught  with 
untold  misery  for  the  Jews.  If  was  now  the  turn  of  the  in- 
habitants of  White  Russia  and  Lithuania  to  face  the  hordes  of 
southern  and  northern  Scythians,  who  invaded  the  regions 
hitherto  spared  by  them,  devastating  them  uninterruptedly  for 
two  years  (1654-1656).  The  capture  of  the  principal  Polish 
cities  by  the  combined  hosts  of  the  Muscovites  and  Cossacks 
was  accompanied  by  the  extermination  or  expulsion  of  the 
Jews.  When  Moghilev  on  the  Dnieper  ^  surrendered  to  Russian 
arms.  Tzar  Alexis  ]\Iichaelovich  complied  with  the  request 
of  the  local  Russian  inhabitants,  and  gave  orders  to  expel  the 
Jews  and  divide  their  houses  between  the  magistracy  and  the 
Russian  authorities  (1654).  The  Jews,  however,  who  were 
hoping  for  a  speedy  termination  of  hostilities,  failed  to  leave 
the  city  at  once,  and  had  to  pay  severely  for  it.  Towards  the 
end  of  the  summer  of  1655  the  commander  of  the  Russian  gar- 
rison in  Moghilev,  Colonel  Poklonski,  learned  of  the  approach 
of  a  Polish  army  under  the  command  of  Radziwill.  Prompted 
by  the  fear  that  the  Jewish  residents  might  join  the  approach- 
ing enemy,  Poklonski  ordered  the  Jews  to  leave  the  boundaries 

[»See  p.  98,  n.  2.] 


]5i  THE  JEWS   IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

of  the  city,  and,  on  the  giound  of  their  being  Polish  subjeets, 
promised  to  have  them  transferred  to  tlie  camp  of  Radziwill. 
Scarcely  had  the  Jews,  accompanied  by  tlu-ir  wives  and 
children,  and  carrying  with  them  their  property,  left  the  town 
behind  them  when  the  Russian  soldiers,  at  the  command  of  the 
same  Poklonski,  foil  upon  tiiem  and  killed  nearly  all  of  them, 
plundering  their  property  at  the  same  time. 

In  Vitebsk  the  Jews  took  an  active  part  in  defending  the 
town  against  the  besieging  Russian  army.  They  dug  trenches 
around  the  fortified  castle,  strengthened  the  walls,  supplied  the 
soldiers  with  arms,  powder,  and  horses,  and  acted  as  scouts. 
When  the  city  was  finally  taken  by  the  Russians,  the  Jews  were 
completely  robbed  by  the  Zaporozhian  Cossacks,  while  many 
of  them  were  taken  captive,  forcibly  baptized,  or  exiled  to 
Pskov,  Novgorod,  and  Kazan. 

The  Jews  suffered  no  less  heavily  from  the  riot  which 
took  place  in  Vilna,  the  capital  of  Lithuania,  after  its  occupa- 
tion by  the  combined  army  of  Muscovites  and  Cossacks  in 
August,  1655.  A  large  part  of  the  Vilna  community  fled  for  its 
life.  Those  who  remained  behind  were  either  killed  or  banished 
from  the  town  at  the  command  of  Tzar  Alexis  Michaelovich, 
who  was  anxious  to  comply  with  the  request  of  the  local  Russian 
townspeople,  to  rid  them  of  their  Jewish  competitors. 

Shortly  thereafter  a  similar  fate  overtook  the  central  Polish 
provinces  on  the  Vistula  and  the  San  River,  which  had  hitherto 
been  spared  the  horrors  of  the  Cossacks  and  Muscovites.  The 
invasion  of  Sweden,  the  third  enemy  of  Poland  (1655-1658), 
carried  bloodshed  into  the  very  heart  of  the  country.  The 
Swedish  King,  Charles  Gustav,  reduced  one  city  after  the  other, 
both  the  old  and  the  new  capital,  Cracow  and  Warsaw,  speedily 
surrendering  to  him.    A  large  part  of  Great  and  Little  Poland 


THE  CENTER  DURING  ITS  DECLINE  155 

fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Swedes,  and  the  Polish  King,  John 
Casimir,  was  compelled  to  flee  to  Silesia. 

The  easy  victories  of  the  Swedes  were  the  result  of  the 
anarchy  and  political  demoralization  which  had  taken  deep  root 
in  Poland.  It  was  the  treachery  of  the  former  Polish  sub- 
Chancellor  Eadzieyevski  that  brought  the  Swedes  into  Poland, 
and  the  cowardice  of  the  Shlakhta  hastily  surrendered  the  cities 
of  Posen,  Kalish,  Cracow,  and  Vilna,  to  the  enemy.  Moreover 
the  Swedes  were  welcomed  by  the  Polish  Protestants  and  Cal- 
vinists,  who  looked  for  their  rescue  to  the  northern  Protestant 
power  in  the  same  way  in  which  the  Cossacks  expected  their 
salvation  from  Orthodox  Eussia. 

The  Jews  were  the  only  ones  who  had  no  political  advantage 
in  betraying  their  country,  and  their  friendly  attitude  towards 
the  Swedes  no  more  than  corresponded  to  the  conduct  of  the 
Swedes  towards  them.  At  any  rate,  their  patriotism  was  no 
more  open  to  suspicion  than  that  of  the  Poles  themselves,  wlio 
joined  the  power  of  Sweden  to  get  rid  of  the  yoke  of  Muscovy. 
Nevertheless,  the  Jews  had  to  pay  a  terrible  price  for  this  lack 
of  patriotism.  They  found  themselves,  in  the  words  of  a 
contemporary  chronicler,  in  the  position  of  a  man  who  "  fleet  h 
from  a  lion,  and  is  met  by  a  bear."  *  The  Jews  who  had  been 
spared  by  the  Swedes  were  now  annihilated  by  the  patriotic 
Poles,  who  charged  them  with  disloyalty.  The  bands  of  Polish 
irregulars,  which  had  been  organized  in  1656,  under  the  com- 
mand of  General  Charnetzki,  to  save  the  country  from  the 
invader,  vented  their  fury  upon  the  Jews  in  all  thv^  localities 
which  they  wrested  from  the  Swedes. 

The  massacre  of  Jews  began  in  Great  and  Little  Poland, 
without  yielding  in  point  of  barbarism  to  the  butcheries  which, 

[*  Allusion  to  Amos  v.  19.] 


156  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

eight  years  previously,  had  been  perpetrated  iu  the  Ukraina. 
The  Polish  hosts  of  Charnetzki  had  learned  from  the  Cossacks 
the  art  of  exterminating  the  Jews.  Nearly  all  the  Jewish 
communities  in  the  province  of  Posen,  excepting  the  city  of 
Posen,  and  those  in  the  provinces  of  Kalish,  Cracow,  and 
Piotrkov,  were  destroyed  by  the  saviors  of  the  Polish  father- 
land. The  brutal  and  wicked  Charnetzki,  to  use  the  epithets 
applied  to  him  by  the  Jewish  annalists,  or,  to  be  more  exact, 
the  Polish  mob  marching  behind  him,  committed  atrocities 
which  were  truly  worthy  of  the  Cossacks.  They  tortured 
and  murdered  the  rabbis,  violated  the  women,  killed  the  Jews 
by  the  hundreds,  sparing  only  those  who  were  willing  to  become 
Catholics.  These  atrocities  were  as  a  rule  committed  in  the 
wake  of  the  retreating  Swedes,  who  had  behaved  like  human 
beings  towards  the  Jewish  population.  The  humaneness  shown 
by  the  Swedes  to  the  Jews  was  avenged  by  the  inhumanity  of 
the  Poles. 

While  the  bands  of  Charnetzki  were  attacking  the  Jews  in 
Western  Poland,  the  Muscovites  and  Cossacks  continued  to 
disport  themselves  in  the  eastern  districts  and  in  Lithuania. 
Not  until  1658  did  the  horrors  of  warfare  begin  gradually  to 
subside,  and  only  after  terrible  losses  and  humiliating  conces- 
sions to  IJussia  and  Sweden  was  Poland  able  to  restore  its 
political  order,  which  had  been  shaken  to  its  foundation  dur- 
ing the  preceding  years. 

The  losses  inflicted  upon  the  Jews  of  Poland  during  the 
fatal  decade  of  1648-1658  were  appalling.  In  the  reports  of 
the  chroniclers  the  number  of  Jewish  victims  varies  between 
one  hundred  thousand  and  five  hundred  thousand.  But  even 
if  we  accept  the  lower  figure,  the  number  of  victims  still  re- 
mains colossal,  excelling  the  catastrophes  of  the  Crusades  and 


THE  CENTER  DURING  ITS  DECLINE  157 

the  Black  Death  in  Western  Europe.  Some  seven  hundred 
Jewish  communities  in  Poland  had  suffered  massacre  and 
pillage.  In  the  Ukrainian  cities  situated  on  the  left  banks  of 
the  Dnieper,  the  region  populated  by  Cossacks,  in  the  present 
Governments  of  Chernigov,  Poltava,  and  part  of  Kiev,  the 
Jewish  communities  had  disappeared  almost  completely.  In 
the  localities  on  the  right  shore  of  the  Dnieper  or  in  the  Polish 
part  of  the  Ukraina  as  well  as  in  those  of  Volhynia  and 
Podolia,  wherever  the  Cossacks  had  made  their  appearance, 
only  about  one-tenth  of  the  Jewish  population  survived.  The 
others  had  either  perished  during  the  rebellion  of  Khmelnitzki, 
or  had  been  carried  off  by  the  Tatars  into  Turkey,  or  had  emi- 
grated to  Lithuania,  the  central  provinces  of  Poland,  or  the 
countries  of  Western  Europe.  All  over  Europe  and  Asia 
Jewish  refugees  or  prisoners  of  war  could  be  met  with,  who 
had  fled  from  Poland,  or  had  been  carried  off  by  the  Tatars, 
and  ransomed  by  their  brethren.  Everywhere  the  wanderers 
told  a  terrible  tale  of  the  woes  of  their  compatriots  and  of  the 
martyrdom  of  hundreds  of  Jewish  communities. 

An  echo  of  all  these  horrors  resounds  in  contemporary  chron- 
icles and  mournful  synagogue  liturgies.  One  of  the  eye-wit- 
nesses of  the  Ukraina  massacres,  Nathan  Hannover,  from 
Zaslav,  gives  a  striking  description  of  it  in  his  historical  chron- 
icle Yeven  Metzula"^  (1653).  Sabbatai  Kohen,  the  famous 
scholar  of  Vilna,"  brought  this  catastrophe  to  the  notice  of  the 
Jewish  world  through  a  circular  letter,  entitled  Meghillath 
Efa'  which  was  accompanied  by  prayers  in  memory  of  the 

[' "  Mire  of  the  Deep,"  from  Ps.  Ixix.  3.— The  Hebrew  word 
Yeven  is  a  play  on  Yavan,  "  Greek,"  a  term  generally  applied  to 
the  Greek  Orthodox.] 

■■'  See  p.  130. 

[» "  Scroll  of  Darkness  "  (comp.  Amos  iv.  13),  with  a  clever  allu- 
sion to  the  similarly  sounding  words  in  Zech.  v.  1.] 


158  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  I>OLAND 

Polish  martyrs.  In  heartrending  liturgies  many  contemporary 
rabbis  and  writers,  such  as  Lipman  Heller,  Rabbi  of  Cracow, 
Sheftel  Horovitz,  Eabbi  of  Posen,  the  scholars  Meir  of  Shche- 
breshin '  (Tzok  ha-'lttim*  1650)  and  Gabriel  Shussberg 
(Petah  Teshuha*  1653),  lament  the  destruction  of  Polish 
Jewry.  All  these  writings  are  pervaded  with  the  bitter  con- 
sciousness that  Polish  Jewry  would  never  recuperate  from  the 
blows  it  had  received,  and  that  the  peaceful  nest  in  which  the 
persecuted  nation  had  found  a  refuge  was  destroyed  forever. 

4.  The  Restoration  (1658-1697) 

Fortunately  these  apprehensions  proved  to  be  exaggerated. 
Though  decimated  and  impoverished,  the  Jewish  population  of 
Poland  exceeded  in  numbers  the  Jewish  settlements  of  Western 
Europe.  The  chief  center  of  Judaism  remained  in  Poland  as 
theretofore,  though  it  became  the  center  of  a  more  circum- 
scribed and  secluded  section  of  Jewry.  The  extraordinary 
vitality  of  the  "  eternal  people  "  was  again  demonstrated  by  the 
fact  that  the  Polish  Jews  were  able,  in  a  comparatively  short 
time,  to  recover  from  their  terrible  losses.  No  sooner  had  peace 
been  restored  in  Poland  than  they  began  to  return  to  their  de- 
molished nests  and  to  re-establish  their  economic  position  and 
communal  self-government,  which  had  been  so  violently 
shaken.  King  John  Casimir,  having  resumed  the  reins  of 
government,  declared  that  it  was  his  inmost  desire  to  com- 
pensate his  Jewish  subjects,  though  it  be  only  in  part,  for  the 
sufferings  inflicted  upon  them  and  to  assist  them  in  recuperat- 
ing from  material  ruin.    This  declaration  the  King  made  in  the 

['  In  Polish  Szczebrzeszyn,  a  town  in  the  region  ol,  Lublin.] 
[*"  Troublous  Times,"  allusion  to  Dan.  Ix.  25.] 
[• "  Door  of  Repentance."' 


THE  CENTER  DURING  ITS  DECLINE  159 

*form  of  a  charter  bestowing  the  right  of  free  commerce  upon 
the  Jews  of  Cracow  (1661).  Various  privileges,  as  well  as 
temporary  alleviations  in  the  payment  of  taxes,  were  conferred 
by  him  upon  numerous  other  JeAvish  communities  which  had 
suffered  most  from  the  horrors  of  the  Cossacks  and  the  inva- 
sions of  the  Eussians  and  Swedes. 

It  goes  without  saying  that  all  this  could  only  soften  the 
consequences  of  the  terrible  economic  crisis,  but  could  not 
avert  them.  The  crisis  left  its  sad  impress  particularly  upon 
the  South,  which  had  been  the  scene  of  the  Cossack  rebellion. 
As  far  as  the  Ukraina  was  concerned,  peace  was  not  completely 
restored  for  a  long  time.  By  the  Treaty  of  Andrusovo,  of  1667, 
Poland  and  Muscovy  divided  the  province  between  them :  the 
portion  situated  on  the  right  bank  of  the  Dnieper  (Volhynia 
and  Podolia)  remained  with  Poland,  while  the  section  on  the 
left  bank  of  the  same  river,  called  Little  Eussia  (the  region 
of  Poltava,  Chernigov,  and  part  of  the  district  of  Kiev,  includ- 
ing the  city  of  the  same  name),  was  ceded  to  Muscovy.  How- 
ever, in  consequence  of  the  party  dissensions  which  divided  the 
ranks  of  the  Cossacks,  and  made  their  various  hetmans  gravi- 
tate now  towards  the  one,  now  towards  the  other,  of  the  sov- 
ereign powers,  the  Ukraina  continued  for  a  long  time  to  be 
an  apple  of  discord  between  Poland,  Eussia,  and  Turkey.  This 
agitation  handicapped  alike  the  agricultural  pursuits  of  the 
peasants  and  the  commercial  activities  of  the  Jews.  In  Little 
Eussia  the  Jews  had  almost  disappeared,  while  in  the  Polish 
Ukraina  they  had  become  greatly  impoverished.  The  south- 
western region,  where  the  Jews  had  once  upon  a  time  lived  so 
comfortably,  sank  economically  lower  and  lower,  and  grad- 
ually yielded  its  supremacy  to  the  northwest,  to  Lithuania  and 
White  Eussia,  which  had  suffered  comparatively  little  during 
11 


lf;0  THE  JEWS   IN  RUSSIA   AND  POLAND 

the  years  of  unrest.  The  transfer  ol'  the  cultural  center  of 
Judaism  from  the  south  to  the  north  forms  one  of  the  charac- 
teristic features  of  the  period. 

Michael  Vishniovetzki  (1669-1673),  who  was  elected  King 
after  John  Casimir,  extended  his  protection  to  the  Jews  by 
virtue  of  family  traditions,  being  a  son  of  the  hero  Jeremiah 
Vishniovetzki,  who  had  saved  many  a  .Jewish  community  of  the 
Ukraina  during  the  sinister  years  of  the  Cossack  mutiny.    At 
the  Coronation  Diet*  Vishniovetzki  ratified  the  fundamental 
privileges  of  the  Polish  and  l.ithuanian  Jews,  "as  far  as  those 
privileges  are  not  in  contradiction  witli  the  general  laws  and 
customs."     This  ratification  had  been  obtained  tlirough  an 
application  of  the  "  general  syndic  of  the  Jews,"  Moses  Marko- 
vieh,*  who  evidently  acted  as  the  spokesman  of  all  the  Kahals 
of  the  ancient  provinces  of  Poland.    The  benevolent  intentions 
of  the  King  were  counteracted  by  the  Diets,  which,  controlled 
by  the  clergy  and  Shlakhta,  issued  restrictive  laws  against  the 
Jews.    The  Diet  of  Warsaw  held  in  1670  not  only  limited  the 
financial  operations  of  Jewish  capitalists  by  fixing  a  maximum 
rate  of  interest  (20%)* — this  would  have  been  perfectly  legiti- 
mate— but  also  thought  it  necessary  to  restore  the  old  canonical 
regulations  forbidding  the  Jews  to  keep  Christian  domestics 
or  to  leave  their  houses  during  the  Church  processions.     In 
these  Diet  regulations,  particularly  in  their  tone  and  motiva- 
tion  ("  in  order  that  the  perfidy  and  self-will  of  the  Jews 
should  not  gain  the  upper  hand,"  etc.),  one  cannot  fail  to 
perceive  the  venom  of  the  Catholic  clergy,  which  once  more 

[•  See  p.  98,  n.  1.] 

[*  I.  €.  son  of  Mark,  or  Mordecai.    On  "  syndics  "  see  p.  Ill,  n.  2.1 

[*  Twenty  per  cent  was  the  legalized  rate  of  interest  in  Italy  at 

the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century.    See  Israel  Abrahams,  Jewish  Life 

in  the  Middle  Ages,  p.  242.] 


THE  CENTER  DURING  ITS  DECLINE  161 

engaged  in  its  old  metur  of  slandering  the  Jews,  charging 
them  with  hostility  to  the  Christians  and  with  the  desecration 
of  Church  sacraments. 

The  influence  of  these  Church  fanatics  upon  the  Polish 
schools,  coupled  with  the  general  deterioration  of  morals  as 
a  result  of  the  protracted  wars,  was  responsible  for  the  recru- 
descence, during  that  period,  of  the  ugly  street  attacks  upon 
the  Jews  by  the  students  of  the  Christian  colleges,  the  so-called 
S chiller gelduf.  These  scholastic  excesses  now  became  an  every- 
day occurrence  in  the  cities  of  Poland.  The  riotous  scholars 
not  only  caused  public  scandals  by  insulting  Jewish  passei-s- 
by  on  the  street,  but  frequently  invaded  the  Jewish  quarters, 
where  they  instituted  regular  pogroms.  Most  of  these  dis- 
orders were  engineered  by  the  pupils  of  the  Academy  of 
Cracow  and  the  Jesuit  schools  in  Posen,  Lemberg,  Vilna,  and 
Brest. 

The  local  authorities  were  passive  onlookers  of  these  savage 
pranks  of  the  future  citizens  of  Poland,  which  occasionally 
assumed  very  dangerous  forms.  In  order  to  protect  themselves 
from  such  attacks  many  Jewish  communities  paid  an  annual 
tax  to  the  rectors  of  the  local  Catholic  schools,  and  this  tax, 
which  was  called  kozubales,  was  officially  recognized  by  the 
"  common  law "  then  in  use.  However,  even  the  ransom 
agreed  upon  could  not  save  the  Jews  of  Lemberg  from  a  bloody 
pogrom.  The  pupils  of  the  Cathedral  school  and  the  Jesuit 
Academy  of  that  city  were  preparing  to  storm  the  Jewish 
quarter.  Having  learned  of  the  intentions  of  the  rioters,  the 
Jewish  youth  of  Lemberg  organized  an  armed  self-defense, 
and  courageously  awaited  the  enemy.  But  the  attack  of  the 
Christian  students,  who  were  assisted  by  the  mob,  was  so  fur- 
ious that  the  Jewish  guard  was  unable  to  hold  its  own.    The 


162  THE  JEWS   IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

resistance  of  the  Jews  only  resulted  in  exasperating  the  rioters, 
and  the  disorders  took  the  form  of  a  massacre.  About  a  hun- 
dred Jewish  dead,  a  large  number  of  demolished  houses,  several 
desecrated  synagogues,  were  the  result  of  the  barbarous  amuse- 
ment of  the  disciples  of  the  militant  Church  (1664) . 

Of  the  medieval  trials  of  that  period  two  cases,  one  in  Lith- 
uania and  the  other  in  the  Crown,  stand  out  with  particular 
prominence.  The  former  took  place  in  the  little  town  of 
Ruzhany,  in  the  province  of  Grodno,  in  1657.  The  local 
Christians,  who  on  their  Easter  festival  had  placed  a  dead 
child's  body  in  the  yard  of  a  Jew,  thereupon  charged  the  whole 
community  with  having  committed  a  ritual  murder.  The  trial 
lasted  nearly  three  years,  and  ended  in  the  execution  of  two 
representatives  of  the  Jewish  community.  Rabbi  Israel  and 
Eabbi  Tobias.  A  dirge  commemorating  this  event,  composed 
by  a  son  of  one  of  the  martyrs,  contains  a  lieartrending  descrip- 
tion of  the  tragedy.* 

My  enemies  have  arisen  against  me,  and  have  spread  their  nets 
in  the  shape  of  a  false  accusation  in  order  to  destroy  my  posses- 
sions. They  took  dead  bodies,  slashed  them,  and  spoke  with 
furious  cunning:  Behold,  the  ill-fated  Jews  drink  and  suck  the 
blood  of  the  murdered,  and  feed  on  the  children  of  the  Gentiles. 
Three  j'ears  did  the  horrible  slander  last,  and  we  thought  our 
liberation  was  near,  but,  alas,  terrible  darkness  has  engulfed  us. 
Our  sworn  enemies  dragged  us  before  their  hostile  court.  The 
evil-doers  assembled  in  the  week  before  the  New  Year,  and  turned 
justice  into  wormwood.  A  wily  and  wicked  Gentile  judged  only 
by  the  sight  of  his  eyes,  without  witnesses;  he  judged  innocent 
and  sinless  people  in  order  to  shed  pure  blood.  The  horde  of 
evil-doers  pronounced  a  perverted  verdict,  saying:     "Choose  ye 


'  We  quote  the  following  in  abbreviated  form.     [For  the  com- 
plete text  see  the  article  cited  in  the  next  note.] 


THE  CENTER  DURING  ITS  DECLINE  163 

[for  execution]  two  Jews,  such  as  may  please  you."  A  beautiful 
pair  fell  into  their  nets:  Rabbi  Israel  and  Rabbi  Tobias,  the 
holy  ones,  were  singled  out  from  among  the  community.*  These 
men  saw  the  glittering  blade  of  the  sword,  but  no  fear  fell  upon 
them.  They  clasped  each  other's  hands  and  swore  to  share  the 
same  fate.  "  Let  us  take  courage,  and  let  us  prepare  with  a  light 
heart  to  sacrifice  ourselves.  Let  us  become  the  lambs  for  the 
slaughter;  we  shall  surely  find  protection  under  the  wings  of 
God."  On  the  sixth  day  these  holy  men  were  led  out  to  execu- 
tion, and  an  altar  was  erected.  The  wrath  of  the  Lord  burst  forth 
in  the  year  of  "  Recompense,"  -  on  the  festival  of  Commemoration 
[New  Year].  The  bitterness  of  death  was  awaiting  [the  martyrs] 
in  the  midst  of  the  market-place.  They  confessed  their  sins,  say- 
ing: "  We  have  sinned  before  the  Lord.  Let  us  sanctify  His  name 
like  Hananiah,  Mishael,  and  Azariah."  They  turned  to  the  execu- 
tioner, saying:  "Grant  us  one  hour  of  respite,  that  we  may 
render  praise  unto  the  Lord."  The  lips  of  the  impure,  the  false 
lips  of  those  who  pursue  the  wind  and  worship  corrupt  images, 
came  to  tempt  them  with  strange  beliefs,'  but  the  holy  men  ex- 
claimed: "Away,  ye  impure!  Shall  we  renounce  the  living 
God,  and  wander  after  trees?  "^  The  holy  Rabbi  Israel  stretched 
forth  his  neck,  and  shouted  with  all  his  might:  "Hear,  O  Israel, 
the  Lord  our  God,  the  Lord  is  one."  Thereupon  the  executioner 
stretched  forth  his  hand  to  take  the  sword,  and  the  costly  vessel 
was  shattered.  When  the  holy  Rabbi  Tobias  saw  this  loss,  he 
exclaimed:     "Blessed  art  thou,  O  Rabbi  Israel,  who  hast  passed 


•  From  the  Hebrew  text  it  is  not  clear  whether  they  offered 
themselves  voluntarily  as  victims,  or  whether  they  were  picked 
out  by  others.  According  to  the  local  tradition  in  Ruzhany,  the 
former  was  the  case.  [See  Dubnow  in  the  Russian  Jewish  monthly 
Voskhod,  July,  1903,  p.  19,  n.  1.] 

-  The  corresponding  word  in  Hebrew  (  D^DIT'EJ'  ),  which  is  marked 
with  dots  in  the  original,  represents  the  year  of  the  event:  [51420 
aera  mundi,  which  equals  1659  c.  e. 

'■'  I.  e.  they  tried  to  convert  the  martyrs  to  Catholicism. 

[*  Allusion  to  Judces  ix.  9,  where  the  English  version  translates 
differently.  The  Hebrew  word  for  "  tree  "  also  signifies  "  wood," 
and  is  used  in  polemic  literature  for  "cross."] 


164  THE  JENYS   IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

first  into  the  Realm  of  Light.  I  follow  thee."  He  too  exclaimed: 
"Hear,  O  Israel,  who  art  guarded  [by  God]  like  the  apple  of  the 
eye."  And  he  went  forth  to  die  in  the  name  of  the  Lord,  and  [the 
executioner]  slew  him  as  he  had  slain  the  first. 

Another  tragedy  took  place  in  Cracow,  in  1G63.  The 
educated  Jewish  apothecary  Mattathiah  Calahora,  a  native  of 
Italy  who  had  settled  in  Cracow,  committed  the  blunder  of 
arguing  with  a  local  priest,  a  member  of  the  Dominican  order, 
about  religious  topics.  The  priest  invited  Calahora  to  a  dis- 
putation in  the  cloister,  but  the  Jew  declined,  promising  to 
expound  his  views  in  writing.  A  few  days  later  the  priest  found 
on  his  chair  in  the  church  a  statement  written  in  German 
and  containing  a  violent  arraignment  of  the  cult  of  the  Ira- 
maculate  Virgin.  It  is  not  impossible  that  the  statement  was 
composed  and  placed  in  the  church  by  an  adherent  of  the 
Reformation  or  the  Arian  heresy,*  both  of  which  were  then 
the  object  of  persecution  in  Poland.  However,  the  Dominican 
decided  that  Calahora  was  the  author,  and  brought  the  charge 
of  blasphemy  against  him. 

The  Court  of  the  Eoyal  Castle  cross-examined  the  defendant 
under  torture,  without  being  able  to  obtain  a  confession.  Wit- 
nesses testified  that  Calahora  was  not  even  able  to  write  German. 
Being  a  native  of  Italy,  he  used  the  Italian  language  in  his 
conversations  with  the  Dominican.  In  spite  of  all  this  evidence, 
the  unfortunate  Calahora  was  sentenced  to  be  burned  at  the 
stake.  The  alarmed  Jewish  community  raised  a  protest,  and 
the  case  was  accordingly  transferred  to  the  highest  court  in 
Piotrkov.'  The  accused  was  sent  in  chains  to  Piotrkov,  together 
with  the  plaintiff  and  the  witnesses.  But  the  arch-Catholic  tri- 
bunal confirmed  the  verdict  of  the  lower  court,  ordering  that 

['See  p.  91,  n.  1.] 
V  See  p.  96,  n.  1.] 


THE  CENTER  DURING  ITS  DECLINE  166 

the  sentence  be  executed  in  tlie  following  barbarous  sequence: 
first  the  lips  of  the  "  blasphemer  "  to  be  cut  off ;  next  his  hand 
that  had  held  the  fateful  statement  to  be  burned;  then  the 
tongue,  which  had  spoken  against  the  Christian  religion,  to  be 
excised ;  finally  tlie  body  to  be  burned  at  the  stake,  and  the  ashes 
of  the  victim  to  be  loaded  into  a  cannon  and  discharged  into  the 
air.  This  cannibal  ceremonial  was  faithfully  carried  out  on 
December  13,  1663,  on  the  market-place  of  Piotrkov.  For  two 
centuries  the  Jews  of  Cracow  followed  the  custom  of  reciting, 
on  the  fourteenth  of  Kislev,  in  the  old  synagogue  of  that  city,  a 
memorial  prayer  for  the  soul  of  the  martyr  Calahora. 

There  is  evidently  some  connection  between  this  event  and 
the  epistle  sent  by  the  General  of  the  Dominican  Order  in  Eome, 
Marini,  to  the  head  of  the  order  in  Cracow,  dated  February  9, 
1664.  Marini  states  that  the  "  unfortunate  Jews  "  of  Poland 
had  complained  to  him  about  the  "  wicked  slanders  "  and  accu- 
sations, the  "  sole  purpose  "  of  which  was  to  influence  the 
Diet  soon  to  assemble  at  Warsaw,  and  demonstrate  to  it  that 
"  the  Polish  people  hate  the  Jews  unconditionally."  He  re- 
quests his  colleagues  in  Cracow  and  the  latter's  subordinates 
"  to  defend  the  hapless  people  against  every  calumny  invented 
against  them."  Subsequent  history  shows  that  the  epistle  was 
sent  in  vain. 

The  last  Polish  king  who  extenc^ed  efficient  protection  to  the 
Jews  against  the  classes  and  parties  hostile  to  them,  was 
John  III.  Sobieski  (1674-1696),  Avho  by  his  military  exploits 
succeeded  in  restoring  the  political  prestige  of  Poland.  This 
King  had  frequent  occasion  to  fight  the  growing  anti-Semitic 
tendencies  of  the  Shlakhta,  the  municipalities,  and  the  clergy. 
He  granted  safe-conducts  to  various  Jewish  communities,  pro- 
tecting their  "  liberties  and  privileges,"  enlarged  their  sphere 


166  THE  JEWS   IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

of  self-government,  and  freed  them  from  the  jurisdiction  of 
the  local  municipal  authorities.  In  1682  he  complied  with  the 
request  of  the  Jews  of  Vilna,  who  begged  to  be  released  from  the 
municipal  census.  The  application  was  prompted  by  the  fact 
that  a  year  previously  they  had  been  induced  by  the  magistracy 
of  Vilna,  which  assured  them  of  complete  safety,  to  go  outside 
the  town  where  the  census  of  the  Jews  and  the  Christian  trade- 
unions  was  taken.  But  no  sooner  had  the  Jews  left  the  confines 
of  the  city  than  the  members  of  the  trade-unions  and  other 
Christian  inhabitants  of  Vilna  began  to  shoot  at  them  and  rob 
them  of  their  clothes  and  valuables.  The  Jews  would  have  been 
entirely  annihilated,  had  not  the  pupils  of  the  local  Jesuit  col- 
lege taken  pity  on  them,  and  rescued  them  from  the  fury  of  the 
mob.  While  the  riot  was  in  progress,  the  magistracy  of  Vilna 
not  only  failed  to  defend  the  Jews,  but  even  looked  on  at  the 
proceedings  "  with  great  satisfaction." 

It  is  necessary  to  point  out  that  such  manifestation  of  hu- 
maneness on  the  part  of  the  Polish  college  youth  was  a  rare 
phenomenon,  indeed.  As  a  rule,  the  students  themselves  were 
the  initiators  of  the  "  tumults  "  or  disorders  in  the  Jewish 
quarter,  and  the  scholastic  riots  referred  to  previously  did  not 
cease  even  under  John  Sobieski.  The  pupils  of  the  Catholic 
academy  in  Cracow  made  an  attack  upon  the  Jews  because  of 
their  refusal  to  pay  the  so-called  Jiozuhahs,  the  scholastic  tax 
which  had  been  agreed  upon  between  the  Jews  and  the  Chris- 
tian colleges  (1681-1682).  In  1687  the  tumultuous  scholars, 
this  time  in  Posen,  were  joined  by  the  street  mob,  and  for  three 
consecutive  days  the  Jews  had  to  defend  themselves  against  the 
rioters  with  weapons  in  their  hands.  The  national  Polish  Diets 
condemned  these  forms  of  violence,  and  in  their  "  constitu- 
tions "  guaranteed  to  the  Jews  inviolability  of  person  and 


THE  CENTER  DURING  ITS  DECLINE  167 

property,  particularly  when  they  found  it  necessary  to  raise  the 
head-tax  or  impose  special  levies  upon  the  Jews. 

In  reality  the  only  defender  of  the  Jews  was  the  King.  At  his 
court  appeared  the  "general  syndics,"  or  spokesmen  of  the 
Jewish  communities,  and  presented  various  applications,  which 
John  Sobieski  was  ready  to  grant  as  far  as  lay  in  his  power. 
This  humane  attitude  towards  the  "  infidels  "  was  on  more  than 
one  occasion  held  up  against  him  at  the  sessions  of  the  Senate  * 
and  the  Diets.  At  the  Diet  held  in  Grodno  in  1693  the  enemies 
of  the  court  brought  charges  against  the  Jew  Bezalel,  a  favorite 
of  the  King  and  a  royal  tax-farmer,  accusing  him  of  desecrating 
the  Christian  religion,  embezzling  state  funds,  and  other 
crimes.  After  passionate  debates,  John  Sobieski  insisted  that 
Bezalel  be  allowed  to  clear  himself  by  oath  of  the  charge  of 
blasphemy,  while  the  other  accusations  were  disposed  of  by  the 
chancellor  of  the  exchequer. 

During  the  reign  of  John  Sobieski  Polish  Jewry  fully  re- 
cuperated from  the  terrible  ravages  of  the  previous  epoch. 
Under  his  successors  its  position  became  more  and  more  un- 
favorable. 

5.  Social  and  Political  Dissolution 

The  process  of  disintegration  which  had  seized  the  feudal  and 
clerical  structure  of  the  Polish  body  politic  assumed  appalling 
proportions  under  the  kings  of  the  Saxon  dynasty,  Augustus  II. 
and  Augustus  III.  (1697-1763) .  The  political  anarchy,  which, 
coupled  with  the  failures  in  the  Swedish  war  at  the  beginning 
of    the    eighteenth    century,    surrendered    Poland    into    the 

['  The  Senate  formed  the  upper  chamber  of  the  Polish  parlia- 
ment.] 


168  THE  JEWS   IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

hands  of  rejuvenated  Russia  under  Peter  the  Great,  was  only 
the  external  manifestation  of  the  inner  decay  of  the  country, 
springing  from  its  social  order,  which  was  founded  on  the 
arbitrariness  of  the  higher  and  the  servitude  of  the  lower 
estates.'  In  a  land  in  which  every  class  had  regard  only  for  its 
own  selfish  interests,  in  which  the  Diets  could  be  broken  up  by 
the  whim  of  a  single  deputy  (the  so-called  liberum  veto),  the 
Government  did  not  concern  itself  with  the  common  weal,  but 
pursued  its  narrow  bureaucratic  interests.  In  these  circum- 
stances the  Jews,  being  oppressed  by  all  the  Polish  estates,  were 
gradually  deprived  of  their  principal  support,  the  authority 
of  the  king,  which  had  formerly  exercised  a  moderating  in- 
fluence upon  the  antagonism  of  the  classes.  True,  at  the 
Coronation  Diets  of  Augustus  II.  and  Augustus  III.  the  old 
Jewish  privileges  were  officially  ratified,  but,  in  consequence 
of  the  prevailing  chaos  and  disorder,  the  rights,  confirmed  in 
this  manner,  remained  a  scrap  of  paper.  Limited  as  these 
rights  were,  their  execution  depended  on  the  constant  watch- 
fulness of  the  supreme  powers  of  the  state  and  on  their  readi- 
ness to  defend  these  rights  against  the  encroachments  of  hostile 
elements.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  heedless  "  Saxon  kings," 
being  neglectful  of  the  general  interests  of  the  country,  had  no 
special  reason  to  pay  attention  to  the  interests  of  the  Jews. 
The  only  concern  of  the  Government  was  the  regular  collection 

'  In  the  "Political  Catechism  of  the  Polish  Republic,"  published 
in  1735,  we  read  the  following:  "Who  is  it  in  this  vast  country 
that  engages  in  commerce,  in  handicrafts,  in  keeping  inns  and 
taverns?" — "  The  Jews."  .  ,  .  "  What  may  be  the  reason  for  it?  " — 
•'  Because  all  commerce  and  handicrafts  are  prohibited  to  the 
Shlakhta  on  account  of  the  Importance  of  this  estate,  just  as  sins 
are  prohibited  by  the  commandments  of  God  and  by  the  law  of 
nature." — "  Who  imposes  and  who  pays  the  taxes?  " — "  The  taxes 
are  imposed  by  the  nobility,  and  they  are  paid  by  the  peasant,  the 
burgher,  and  the  Jew." 


THE  CENTER  DURING  ITS  DECLINE  169 

of  the  head-tax  from  the  Kahals.  This  question  of  taxation 
was  discussed  with  considerable  zeal  at  the  "  pacific  "  Diet  of 
1717,  which  had  been  convened  in  Warsaw  for  the  purpose  of 
restoring  law  and  order  in  the  country,  sorely  shaken  by  the 
protracted  war  with  the  Swedish  king  Charles  XII.  and  the 
inner  anarchy  accompanying  it.  Despite  the  fact  that  the 
Jews  had  been  practically  ruined  during  that  period  of  unrest, 
the  amount  of  the  head-tax  was  considerably  increased. 

The  local  representatives  of  the  Government,  the  voyevodas 
and  starostas,*  whose  function  was  to  defend  the  Jews,  fre- 
quently became  the  most  relentless  oppressors  of  the  people 
under  their  charge.  These  provincial  satraps  looked  upon  the 
Jewish  population  merely  as  the  object  of  unscrupulous  extor- 
tion. Whenever  in  need  of  money,  the  starostas  resorted  to 
a  simple  contrivance  to  fill  their  pockets :  they  demanded  a 
fixed  sum  from  the  local  Kahal,  and  threatened,  in  case  of 
refusal,  imprisonment  and  other  forms  of  violence.  All  they 
had  to  do  was  to  send  to  jail  some  member  of  the  Jewish 
community,  preferably  a  Kahal  elder  or  an  influential  repre- 
sentative, and  the  Kahal  was  sure  to  pay  the  demanded 
sum.  Occasionally  this  well-calculated  exploitation  was  re- 
lieved by  the  aimless  mockery  of  these  despots,  who  were  unable 
to  restrain  their  savage  instincts.  Thus  the  Starosta  of  Kaniev, 
in  the  Polish  Ukraina,  desiring  to  compensate  a  neighboring 
landowner  for  the  murder  of  his  Jewish  arendar,  gave  orders 
to  load  a  number  of  Jews  upon  a  wagon,  who  were  thereupon 
carried  to  the  gates  of  his  injured  neighbor  and  thrown  down 
there  like  so  many  bags  of  potatoes.  Tlie  same  Starosta  al- 
lowed himself  the  following  "  entertainment  " :  lie  would  order 
Jewish  women  to  climb  an  apple-tree  and  call  like  cuckoos.    He 

[^  See  above,  p.  46,  n.  1,  and  p.  60,  n.  1.] 


170  THE  JEWS   IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

would  next  bombard  them  with  small  shot,  and  watch  the  un- 
fortunate women  fall  wounded  from  the  tree,  whereupon, 
laughing  merrily,  he  would  throw  gold  coins  among  them. 

The  most  powerful  estate  in  the  country,  the  liberty-loving, 
or,  more  correctly,  license-loving  Shlakhta,  protected  the  Jews 
only  when  in  need  of  their  services.  Claiming  for  himself,  in 
his  capacity  as  slaveholder,  the  toil  of  his  peasants,  the  pan  laid 
equal  claim  to  the  toil  of  the  Jewish  business  man  and  arendar 
who  turned  the  rural  products  of  his  master  and  the  right  of 
"  propination,"  or  liquor-selling,  into  sources  of  income  for  the 
latter.  At  one  time  the  Polish  landowners  even  made  the 
attempt  to  enslave  the  Jews  on  their  estates  by  legal  proceed- 
ings. At  the  Diet  of  1740  the  deputies  of  the  nobility  brought 
in  a  resolution,  that  the  Jews  living  on  Shlakhta  estates  be 
recognized  as  the  "  hereditary  subjects  "  of  the  owners  of  those 
estates.  This  monstrous  attempt  at  transforming  the  rural 
Jews  into  serfs  was  rejected  solely  because  the  Government 
refused  to  forego  the  mcome  from  Jewish  taxation,  which 
in  this  case  would  flow  into  the  pockets  of  the  landowners. 

Nevertheless  the  rural  Jew  was  to  all  intents  and  purposes 
the  serf  of  his  pan.  The  latter  exercised  full  jurisdiction  over 
his  Jewish  arendar  and  "  factor  "  *  as  well  as  over  the  residents 
on  his  estates  in  general.  During  the  savage  inroads,  frequent 
during  this  period,  of  one  pan  upon  the  estate  of  another,  the 
Jewish  arendars  were  the  principal  sufferers.  The  meetings  of 
the  local  Diets  (or  Dietines)  and  the  conferences  of  the 
Shlakhta  or  the  sessions  of  the  court  tribunals  became  fixed 
occasions  for  attacking  the  local  Jews,  for  invading  their  syna- 
gogues and  houses,  and  engaging,  by  way  of  amusement,  in  all 

[*  More  exactly,  faktor,  Polish  designation  for  broker,  agent,  and 
general  utility  man.] 


THE  CENTER  DURING  ITS  DECLINE  1^1 

kinds  of  "  excesses."  The  Diet  of  1717  held  in  Warsaw  pro- 
tested against  these  wild  orgies,  and  threatened  the  rioters  and 
the  violators  of  public  safety  with  severe  fines.  The  "  custom  " 
nevertheless  remained  in  vogue. 

As  far  as  the  cities  are  concerned,  the  Jews  were  engulfed 
in  endless  litigation  with  the  Christian  merchant  guilds  and 
trade-unions,  which  wielded  a  most  powerful  weapon  in  their 
hands  by  controlling  the  city  government  or  the  magistracy. 
Competition  in  business  and  trade  was  deliberately  disguised 
beneath  the  cloak  of  religion,  for  the  purpose  of  inciting  the 
passions  of  the  mob  against  the  Jews.  The  Christian  mer- 
chants and  tradesmen  found  an  enthusiastic  ally  in  the  Catholic 
clergy.  The  seed  sown  by  the  Jesuits  yielded  a  rich  harvest. 
Eeligious  intolerance,  hypocrisy,  and  superstition  had  taken 
deep  root  in  the  Polish  people.  Eeligious  persecution,  directed 
against  all  "  infidels,"  be  they  Christian  dissidents  or  Jews 
"  who  stubbornly  cling  to  irreligion,"  was  one  of  the  main- 
springs of  the  inner  politics  of  Poland  during  its  period  of 
decay. 

The  enactments  of  the  Catholic  synods  are  permeated  by 
malign  hatred  of  the  Jews,  savoring  of  the  spirit  of  the  Middle 
Ages.  The  Synod  of  Lovicli  held  in  1720  passed  a  resolution 
"  that  the  Jews  should  nowhere  dare  build  new  synagogues 
or  repair  old  ones,"  so  that  the  Jewish  houses  of  worship  might 
disappear  in  the  course  of  time,  either  from  decay  or  through 
fire.  The  Synod  of  1733  held  in  Plotzk  repeats  the  medieval 
maxim,  that  the  only  reason  for  tolerating  the  Jews  in  a  Chris- 
tian country  is  that  they  might  serve  as  a  "  reminder  of  the 
tortures  of  Christ  and,  by  their  enslaved  and  miserable  position, 
as  an  example  of  the  just  chastisement  inflicted  by  God  upon 
the  infidels." 


173  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

6.  A  Frenzy  of  Blood  Accusations 

The  end  of  the  seventeenth  century  is  marked  by  the  fre- 
quency of  religious  trials,  the  Jews  being  charged  with  ritual 
murder  and  the  desecration  of  Church  sacraments.  These 
charges  were  the  indigenous  product  of  the  superstition  and 
ignorance  of  the  Catholic  masses,  but  they  were  also  used  for 
propaganda  purposes  by  the  clerical  party,  which  sometimes 
even  took  a  direct  hand  in  arranging  the  setting  of  the  crime, 
by  throwing  dead  bodies  into  the  yards  of  Jews,  and  other  simi- 
lar contrivances.  Such  propaganda  often  resulted  in  the  adop- 
tion of  violent  measures  by  the  authorities  or  the  mob  against 
the  alleged  culprits,  leading  to  the  destruction  of  synagogues 
and  cemeteries  and  sometimes  culminating  in  the  expulsion  of 
the  Jews. 

The  cases  of  ritual  murder  were  tried  by  the  highest  court, 
the  Tribunal  of  Lublin,  and,  owing  to  the  zeal  of  the  astute 
champions  of  the  Church,  frequently  ended  in  the  execution  of 
entirely  innocent  persons.  The  most  important  trials  of  this 
kind,  those  of  Sandomir  (1698-1710),  Posen  (1736),  and 
Zaslav  (1747),  were  conducted  in  inquisitorial  fashion. 

The  Sandomir  case  was  brought  about  by  the  action  of  a 
Christian  woman  who  threw  the  dead  body  of  her  illegitimate 
child  into  the  yard  of  a  Kahal  elder,  by  the  name  of  Berek,'  thus 
giving  the  clergy  a  chance  to  engineer  a  ritual  murder  trial. 
The  case  passed  through  all  the  courts  of  law.  It  was  greatly 
complicated  by  the  fanatical  agitation  of  the  priest  Stephen 
Zhukhovski,  who  brought  two  additional  charges  of  ritual  mur- 
der against  the  Jews  of  Sandomir,  and  published,  on  this  occa- 
sion, a  book  full  of  hideous  calumnies.  The  case  having  ended 
in  the  lower  courts  favorably  for  the  Jews,  Zhukhovski  suc- 

['  Popular  Polish  form  of  the  Jewish  name  Baer.l 


THE  CENTER  DURING  ITS  DECLINE  173 

ceeded  in  bringing  about  a  uew  trial  with  the  application  of 
tortures  and  the  whole  apparatus  of  the  Inquisition.  He 
finally  reached  his  goal.  The  Tribunal  of  Lublin  sentenced  the 
innocent  Jewish  elder  to  death;  King  Augustus  II.  ordered, 
in  1713,  the  expulsion  of  all  Jews  from  Sandomir  and  the 
conversion  of  the  sj'nagogue  into  a  Catholic  chapel,*  and  the 
Catholic  clergy  placed  a  revolting  picture  in  the  local  church 
representing  the  scene  of  the  ritual  murder. 

To  justify  the  miscarriage  of  justice,  Father  Zhukhovski  and 
his  accomplices  induced  a  converted  Jew,  by  the  name  of  Sera- 
finovieh,  who  posed  as  a  former  Eabbi  of  Brest,  and  had  testi- 
fied at  the  Sandomir  trial  against  the  Jews,  to  write  a  book, 
entitled  "  Exposure  of  the  Jewish  Ceremonies  before  God  and 
the  World''  (1716).  The  book,  a  mixture  of  a  lunatic's 
ravings  and  an  adventurer's  unrestrained  mendacity,  centers 
around  the  argument,  that  the  Jews  use  Christian  blood  in 
the  discharge  of  a  large  number  of  religious  and  every- 
day functions.  The  Jews  are  alleged  to  smear  the  door  of  a 
Christian  with  such  blood,  to  predispose  the  latter  in  favor  of 
the  Jews.  The  same  blood  put  in  an  egg  is  given  to  newly- 
married  couples  during  the  marriage  ceremony ;  it  is  mixed  in 
the  matza  eaten  on  Passover.  It  is  also  used  for  soaking 
an  incantation  formula  written  by  the  rabbi,  which  is  then 
placed  under  the  threshold  of  a  house,  to  secure  success 
in  business  for  the  Jewish  inmate.  In  a  word,  Christian  blood 
is  used  by  the  Jews  for  every  possible  form  of  magic  and  witch- 
craft. To  convict  Serafinovich  publicly  of  lying,  the  Jews  chal- 
lenged him  to  attend  a  disputation  in  Warsaw  in  the  presence 
of  bishops  and  rabbis.  The  disputation  had  been  arranged  to 
be  held  in  the  house  of  the  widow  of  a  high  official,  and  both  the 

*  The  last  order  was  subsequently  repealed. 


174  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA   AND  POLAND 

Jewish  and  Christian  participants  had  arrived,  but  Serafinovich 
failed  to  appear  at  the  meeting,  where  his  trickery  and  ignor- 
ance would  have  been  exposed.  The  refusal  of  the  informer  to 
attend  the  disputation  was  attested  in  an  official  affidavit.  This 
fact  did  not  prevent  an  anti-Semitic  monk  of  Lemberg,  by  the 
name  of  Pikolski,  from  republishing  Serafinovich's  book  twice 
(1758  and  1760)  and  using  it  as  a  tool  to  conduct  a  most 
hideous  agitation  against  the  Jews. 

In  the  large  Jewish  community  of  Posen,  the  slanderous 
accusations  against  the  Jews  were  the  reflection  of  the  inveter- 
ate hostility  of  the  local  Christian  population.  Towards  the 
end  of  the  seventeenth  century  the  Carmelite  order  in  Posen 
contrived  a  curious  lawsuit  against  the  Jews,  alleging  that 
following  upon  the  desecration  of  the  hosts  in  1399  *  the  Jews 
had,  by  way  of  penance  for  their  sacrilege,  obligated  themselves 
to  accompany  the  Christian  processions.  The  Jews  denied  the 
allegation,  and  the  case  dragged  on  for  a  number  of  years  in 
various  courts  of  law,  with  the  result  that,  in  1724,  the  Jews  had 
to  pledge  themselves  to  furnish  the  Carmelites  with  two  pails 
of  oil  annually  to  supply  the  lamp  burning  in  front  of  the 
three  hosts  in  the  church. 

But  the  fanaticism  of  the  Church  was  on  the  lookout  for  new 
victims,  and  it  manifested  itself  in  1736  in  another  ritual  mur- 
der trial,  which  lasted  for  four  years.  Everything  was  pre- 
arranged in  accordance  with  the  "  rites  "  of  the  Church  fanat- 
ics. The  dead  body  of  a  Christian  child  was  found  in  the 
neighborhood  of  the  city.  There  was  also  found  a  Polish  beg- 
gar-woman, who,  under  torture,  confessed  that  she  had  sold  the 
child  to  the  elders  of  the  Posen  community.  Arrests  followed. 
The  first  victims  were  the  preacher,  or  darslian,  Arie-Leib 

['See  p.  55.] 


THE  CENTER  DURING  ITS  DECLINE  175 

Calahora,  a  descendant  of  the  martyr  Mattathiah  Calahora/ 
an  elder  {parnas,  or  syndic)  of  the  Jewish  commimity,  by 
the  name  of  Jacob  Pinkasevich  (son  of  Phineas),  and  sev- 
eral other  members  of  the  Kahal  administration.  Further 
wholesale  arrests  were  imminent,  but  many  Jews  fled  from 
Posen,  to  save  themselves  from  the  fury  of  the  inquisitors. 

On  the  eve  of  his  arrest,  Calahora  chose  for  the  text  of  his 
Sabbath  discourse  the  Biblical  verse,  "  Who  can  count  the  dust 
of  Jacob  and  the  number  of  the  fourth  part  (or  quarter)  of 
Israel?  Let  me  die  the  death  of  the  righteous!"  (Numbers 
xxiii.  10).  As  if  anticipating  his  end,  the  preacher  explained 
the  text  as  follows :  "  Who  can  count  the  dust  and  ashes  of 
those  that  were  burned  and  quartered  for  the  faith  of  Israel  ?  " 
While  being  led  to  jail,  he  addressed  the  crowd  of  Jews  sur- 
rounding him  with  the  following  words :  "  At  the  hour  of  my 
death  I  shall  not  have  around  me  ten  Jews  for  prayer  {mvnyan). 
Therefore  recite  with  me  for  the  last  time  the  prayer  Borhhu 
('Praise  the  Lord  of  Praise!')."  The  forebodings  of  the 
preacher  were  justified.  Neither  he  nor  the  elder  survived  the 
fiendish  tortures  of  the  cross-examination.  While  the  preacher 
was  tortured,  his  bones  being  broken  and  his  body  roasted  on 
fire,  the  elder  was  compelled  to  hold  a  lamp  in  his  hand  to  give 
light  to  the  executioner.  Covered  with  wounds  and  blood,  in 
the  stage  of  mortal  agony,  they  were  carried  to  their  homes, 
where  they  died  in  the  autumn  of  1736. 

The  deputies  of  the  Jewish  community  of  Posen  appealed 
to  King  Augustus  III.  against  the  cruelty  and  partiality  of  the 
municipal  court,  and  succeeded  in  having  the  case  transferred 
to  a  special  judicial  commission  consisting  of  royal  officials. 
Although  the  commission  resorted  equally  to  tortures  during 

[^  See  pp.  164  and  165.] 
12 


176  THE  JEWS   IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

the  cross-examination,  it  was  not  able  to  ^vrest  a  confession 
from  the  innocent  Jewish  prisoners.  Nevertheless,  being  con- 
vinced in  advance  of  the  correctness  of  the  ritual  libel,  the 
judges  sentenced  them  to  be  burned  at  the  stake,  together  with 
the  bodies  of  the  preacher  and  elder,  which  had  to  be  exhumed 
for  this  purpose  (1737). 

The  sentence  had  first  to  be  ratified  by  the  King,  and  the 
Jewish  representatives  in  Warsaw  and  Dresden,  tlie  latter  city 
being  the  second  capital  of  the  King  and  the  residence  of  the 
papal  nuncio,  employed  every  possible  means  to  bring  about 
a  reversal  of  the  judgment.  It  was  difficult  to  influence  Augus- 
tus III.,  the  dull-witted  monarch,  who,  in  addition,  was  imbued 
with  a  goodly  dose  of  anti-Semitism.  But  the  noise  caused  by 
the  trial  at  Posen  and  the  pressure  upon  the  King  on  the  part  of 
the  Jewish  bankers  of  Vienna,  particularly  the  banking-house 
of  Wertheimer,  induced  him  to  yield.  After  a  prolonged 
interval  and  a  second  revision  of  the  case  by  a  royal  commission, 
the  King  gave  orders  to  free  the  Jews,  who  had  languished  in 
prison  for  four  years  (August,  1740).  On  this  occasion  he 
went  out  of  his  way  to  enjoin  the  magistracy  of  Posen  not  to 
resort  to  tortures  in  similar  trials,  but  he  could  not  refrain 
at  the  same  time  from  prescribing  to  the  Jews  "  rules  of  con- 
duct "  after  the  medieval  pattern :  not  to  pass  too  frequently 
beyond  the  boundaries  of  their  ghetto  (which  had  been  pre- 
served in  Posen),  not  to  associate  with  Christians,  nor  caress 
Christian  children,  nor  keep  Christian  domestics,  nor  attend 
Christian  patients,  etc. 

The  favorable  issue  of  the  Posen  trial  was  due  to  the  fact  that 
it  took  place  in  a  large  Jewish  community,  whose  representa- 
tives were  able  to  arouse  the  public  opinion  of  Western  Europe 
and  secure  the  intei-vention  of  influential  persons.    But  in  the 


THE  CENTER  DURING  ITS  DECLINE  177 

distant  corners  of  Poland,  in  the  obscure  Jewish  communities 
of  the  country,  the  ritual  murder  trials  were  in  the  nature  of 
ghastly  nightmares.  Such  was  the  trial  of  Zaslav,  a  tovm  in 
Volhynia,  which  originated  in  1747  as  the  result  of  a  fatal 
concatenation  of  events.  In  the  springtime,  when  the  snow 
was  melting,  the  dead  body  of  a  Christian  was  found  in  a 
neighboring  village,  having  been  buried  beneath  the  snow  for  a 
considerable  time.  It  so  happened  that  about  the  same  time  the 
fimctionaries  of  the  Zaslav  synagogue  assembled  in  a  neighbor- 
ing Jewish  inn,  to  celebrate  the  circumcision  of  the  new-born 
son  of  the  innkeeper.  A  peasant  who  chanced  to  pass  by  the 
inn  informed  the  authorities  that  the  Jews  had  been  praying 
the  whole  night  as  well  as  eating  and  amusing  themselves,  and 
this  suggested  to  the  Bemardine  monks  of  Zaslav  that  the  cele- 
bration had  some  connection  with  ritual  murder,  the  victim  of 
which  was  the  discovered  dead  body.  The  Jewish  innkeeper, 
the  Kahal  elder,  the  hazan  (cantor),  the  moJiel  (surgeon),  and 
the  beadle  of  the  Zaslav  synagogue,  were  indicted.  The  accused, 
in  spite  of  dreadful  tortures,  reiterated  that  they  had  assembled 
to  celebrate  a  circumcision.  Only  the  youthful  beadle  Moyshe, 
crazed  by  the  tortures,  began  to  murmur  something,  repeating 
the  words  which  were  dictated  to  him  by  the  accusers,  though 
he  afterwards  withdrew  the  confession  thus  forced  from  him.' 
The  accused  were  all  sentenced  to  a  monstrous  death,  poss- 
ible only  among  savages.  Some  of  the  accused  were  placed 
on  an  iron  pale,  which  slowly  cut  into  their  body,  and  resulted 
in  a  slow,  torturous  death.  The  others  were  treated  with 
equal  cannibalism;  their  skin  was  torn  off  in  strips,  their 
hearts  cut  out,  their  hands  and  feet  amputated  and  nailed  to 

'  According  to  another  version,  he  expressed  his  willingness  to 
embrace  Christianity  in  order  to  escape  death,  but  afterwards 
repented. 


178  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

the  gallows.  The  memorial  prayer  for  these  martyrs  concludes 
with  the  Biblical  words :  "  0  earth,  cover  not  thou  their  blood, 
and  let  their  cry  have  no  place,  until  the  Lord  shall  look  down 
from  heaven !  " 

However,  the  cry  of  the  Zaslav  martyrs  was  drowned  by  the 
shouts  of  the  new  victims  of  the  ritual  murder  myth,  w!ii(  h 
transformed  the  Christians  who  consciously  or  unconsciously 
allowed  themselves  to  be  infected  by  its  poison  into  cannibals. 

The  Zaslav  trial  was  followed  by  an  uninterrupted  succession 
of  ritual  murder  accusations,  which  in  the  course  of  fifteen 
years  cropped  up  almost  annually.  The  most  revolting  among 
them,  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  surrounding  circumstances, 
were  the  trials  of  Dunaigrod '  (1748),  Pavolochi '^  and  Zhyto- 
mir  (1753),  Yampol'  (1756),  Stupnitza,  near  PshemyshI 
(1759),  and  Voislavitza  *  (1760).  In  the  Zhytomir  case, 
twenty-four  Jews  were  accused  of  having  participated  in  the 
murder  of  the  peasant  boy  Studzienski.  Exhausted  by  tortures 
and  prompted  by  the  desire  to  hasten  their  end,  they  confessed 
to  a  crime  which  they  had  not  committed,  and  were  sentenced 
to  death.  Eleven  were  flayed  alive,  while  the  others  saved 
themselves  from  death  by  accepting  baptism.  An  image  of  the 
alleged  martyr  Studzienski,  in  the  shape  of  a  figure  covered 
with  pins,  was  spread  by  the  clergy  all  over  the  region,  to  inten- 
sify the  hatred  against  the  Jews.  In  Yoislavitza,  near  Lublin, 
the  whole  Kahal  was  charged  with  the  murder  of  a  Christian 
boy  for  the  purpose  of  squeezing  out  his  blood  and  mixing  it 
with  the  unleavened  bread.  The  spiritual  leaders  and  elders  of 
the  Jewish  community  were  brought  to  court.     One  of  the 

V  In  Podolia.] 

[^  In  the  province  of  Kiev.] 

['  In  Volhynia.] 

[*  Near  Lublin.] 


THE  CENTER  DURING  ITS  DECLINE  179 

accused,  the  rabbi,  committed  suicide  while  in  jail.  The 
remaining  four  were  sentenced  to  be  quartered.  Before  the 
execution  the  priest,  holding  out  the  promise  of  leniency, 
induced  the  unfortunate  Jews,  who  had  been  crazed  by  their 
tortures,  to  embrace  Christianity.  The  leniency  consisted  in 
their  being  beheaded  instead  of  being  quartered. 

Terrorized  by  these  inquisitorial  trials,  the  Jewish  com- 
munities of  Poland  decided,  in  1758,  to  send  Jacob  Zelig  (or 
Selek)*  to  Eome  as  their  spokesman,  to  obtain  from  Pope  Bene- 
dict XIV.  the  promulgation  of  a  bull  forbidding  these  false 
accusations  against  the  Jews.  In  the  application  submitted 
by  Zelig  it  is  pointed  out  that  the  life  of  the  Jews  of  Poland 
had  become  intolerable,  for  "  as  soon  as  a  dead  body  is  found 
anywhere,  at  once  the  Jews  of  the  neighboring  localities  are 
brought  before  the  courts  on  the  charge  of  murder  for  super- 
stitious purposes."  The  application  was  turned  over  to  Car- 
dinal Ganganelli,  subsequently  Pope  Clement  XIV.,  who  took 
up  the  matter  very  seriously,  and  suggested  that  the  Papal 
Nuncio  in  Warsaw,  Visconti,  be  instructed  to  submit  a  report 
of  the  recent  ritual  murder  trials  in  Poland.  When  the 
report  arrived,  Ganganelli  composed  an  elaborate  memoran- 
dum, in  which,  as  a  result  of  his  investigation  of  the  whole  his- 
tory of  the  question,  he  demonstrated  the  falsehood  of  the 
ritual  murder  charges  made  against  the  Jews,  which  had  been 
condemned  by  the  popes  in  the  Middle  Ages,  particularly  by 
the  bull  of  Innocent  IV.  of  the  year  1347.''    In  the  Judgment 

'  Another  variant  of  the  name  is  Jelek.  [The  latter  form  is  de- 
clared to  be  incorrect  by  A.  Berliner,  Gutachten  OanganellVs 
(Berlin,  1888),  p.  41.] 

^  Of  all  the  accusations  of  this  kind,  the  Cardinal  recognizes  the 
correctness  of  only  two,  the  murder  of  Simon  of  Trent  in  1475 
and  of  Andreas  of  Brixen  in  1462,  adding,  however,  that  even  their 
death  was  not  caused  by  the  legendary  Jewish  ritual,  but  simply 
by  Jewish  "  hatred  against  the  Christians." 


180  THE  JEWS  TN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

of  Ganganelli  all  the  recent  Polish  trials  were  devoid  of  auy 
basis  in  fact,  and  the  sentences  pronounced  by  the  courts 
revolting  miscarriages  of  justice. 

Ganganelli's  memorandum  was  examined  and  approved  by 
the  Roman  tribunal  of  the  "  Holy  Inquisition,"  and  submitted 
to  the  new  Pope  Clement  XIII.  The  Pope  instnieted  his  nun- 
cio in  Warsaw  to  extend  his  protection  to  Zelig,  the  spokesman 
of  the  Jews,  on  his  return  to  Poland.  Subsequently  the  nun<io 
informed  the  Polish  Prime  Minister  Briihl,  that  "  the  Holy 
See,  having  investigated  all  the  foundations  of  this  aber- 
ration, according  to  which  the  Jews  need  human  blood  for 
the  preparation  of  their  unleavened  bread,"  had  come  to  the 
conclusion  that  "  there  was  no  evidence  whatsoever  testifying 
to  the  correctness  of  that  prejudice  "  (1763).  King  Augustus 
III.  ratified  in  the  same  year  the  ancient  charters  of  his  pre- 
decessors, promising  the  Jews  the  protection  of  the  law  in  all 
ritual  murder  cases.  Yet  it  was  not  easy  to  eradicate  the 
prejudices  which  had  been  implanted  in  the  minds  of  the 
people.  Even  the  educated  classes  did  not  escape  their  con- 
tamination. The  contemporary  writer  Kitovich,  in  describing 
Polish  life  during  the  reign  of  Augustus  III.,  indulges  in  the 
following  remark :  "  Just  as  the  liberty  of  the  Shlakhta  is 
impossible  without  the  liberum  veto,  so  is  the  Jewish  matza 
impossible  without  Christian  blood.'' 

7.  The   Massacre  of  Uman  and  the  First  Partition 
OF  Poland 

Undermined  by  social  and  denominational  strife,  the  once 
flourishing  country  was  hastening  to  its  ruin.  From  the 
election  of  Stanislav  Augustus  Poniatovski  to  the  throne  of 
Poland  in  1764,  Poland  was  to  all  intents  and  purposes  under 


THE  CENTER  DURING  ITS  DECLINE  181 

the  protectorate  of  Russia.  Certain  elements  of  Polish  society 
began  to  realize  that  only  by  radical  reforms  could  the  country 
be  saved  from  its  impending  doom.  But  it  seemed  as  if  the 
regime  of  social  and  religious  fanaticism  was  too  decrepit  to 
pass  its  own  death-sentence,  and  awaited  its  fate  from  another 
hand. 

In  the  first  years  of  Stanislav  Augustus'  reign  Polish  poli- 
tics ran  in  their  accustomed  groove.  Instead  of  endeavoring 
to  effect  a  radical  improvement  in  the  condition  of  Polish 
Jewry  as  one  of  the  most  important  elements  of  the  urban 
population,  the  new  Polish  Government  thought  only  of  ex- 
ploiting them  as  much  as  possible  for  the  benefit  of  the  ex- 
chequer. The  Diet  of  1764,  which  was  held  in  Warsaw  prior  to 
the  election  of  the  King,  and  discussed  the  question  of  internal 
reforms,  did  not  consider  it  necessary  to  introduce  any  changes 
in  the  status  of  the  Jews,  except  to  alter  the  system  of  Jewish 
taxation.  Formerly  the  head-tax  had  been  levied  upon  all 
Polish  and  Lithuanian  Jews  annually  in  a  round  sum,  which 
the  central  Jewish  agencies,  the  Waads,  or  Jewish  Councils, 
ap}5ortioned  among  the  separate  Kahals,  and  the  latter,  in 
turn,  allotted  to  the  individual  members  of  the  communities. 
According  to  the  new  "  constitution,"  however,  the  head-tax, 
to  the  extent  of  two  gulden,  was  to  be  imposed  on  every  Jewish 
soul,  and  each  Kahal  was  to  be  held  responsible  for  the  accurate 
collection  from  its  members.  The  only  effect  of  this  reform 
was  to  swell  the  total  amount  of  the  head-tax,  which  as  it  was 
weighed  heavily  upon  the  Jews,  since  many  sources  of  liveli- 
hood were  closed  to  them  at  the  same  time. 

The  Shlakhta  in  turn  zealously  watched  over  its  class 
interests,  and  in  electing  the  king  imposed  upon  him  the  obli- 
gation of  barring  the  Jews  from  the  stewardship  of  crown 


182  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

domains,  state  taxes,  and  other  financial  revenues.  To  gratify 
the  hereditary  compotitors  of  the  Jews — the  Christian  burghers 
and  merchants — the  Diet  of  1768  restored  the  clause  of  the 
ancient  parliamentary  Constitution  of  1538,^  by  virtue  of  which 
the  Jews  of  those  cities  where  they  had  not  obtained  special 
privileges  were  allowed  to  engage  in  commerce  only  with 
the  consent  of  the  magistracies,  and  the  magistracies  were 
made  up  of  those  same  Christian  merchants  and  burghers. 

In  the  meantime,  among  the  Bussian  population  of  that 
portion  of  the  Ukraina  which  was  situated  on  the  right  bank 
of  the  Dnieper,  and  was  still  under  the  sovereignty  of  Poland, 
a  popular  movement  arose,  which  was  directed  simultaneously 
against  the  Poles  and  the  Jews.  It  emanated  from  the  lowest 
elements  of  the  population,  the  enslaved  village  khlops, 
who  had  not  yet  forgotten  the  times  of  Bogdan  Khmelnitzki. 
The  memory  of  those  days  when  the  despised  khlops  waded 
in  the  blood  of  the  proud  Polish  pans  and  the  Jews  was  still 
fresh  in  the  minds  of  the  Ukrainians,  and  made  itself  felt  in 
moments  of  political  unrest,  not  infrequent  in  the  disinte- 
grating body  politic  of  Poland.  Fugitive  Greek  Orthodox 
peasants  from  among  the  serfs  of  the  pans,  itinerant  Zaporo- 
zhians,'  and  Cossacks  from  the  Eussian  part  of  the  Ukraina, 
often  organized  themselves  in  independent  detachments  of 
haidamacks,"  and  indulged  in  looting  the  estates  of  the  nobles 
or  plundering  the  Jewish  towns.  These  incursions  assimaed 
the  character  of  regular  insurrections  during  the  interregnums 
and  on  other  occasions  of  political  unrest.  Thus,  in  1734 
and  in  1750,  detachments  of  haidamacks,  fully  organized 
and  led  by  Cossack  commanders,  devastated  many  towns  and 

[•See  p.  78.] 
t'See  D.  143,  n.  2.] 

P  A  v/ord  of  uncertain  origin  meaning  "  rebel "  or  "  rioter." 
See  p.  149.] 


THE  CENTER  DURING  ITS  DECLINE  183 

villages  in  the  provinces  of  Kiev,  Volhynia,  and  Podolia,  slay- 
ing and  robbing  many  pans  and  Jews. 

The  haidamack  movement  of  1768  was  particularly  furious. 
The  Russian  Government,  which,  beginning  with  the  reign  of 
Stanislav  Poniatovski,  was  practically  in  control  of  the  affairs 
of  Poland,  demanded  that  the  "  dissidents,"  the  Greek  Ortho- 
dox subjects  of  the  country,  be  granted  not  only  complete 
religious  liberty,  but  also  political  equality.  A  consider- 
able part  of  the  Polish  Shlakhta  and  clergy  objected  to  these 
demands,  and,  seceding  from  the  pro-Russian  Government  of 
Poland,  formed  the  famous  Confederacy  of  Bar,^  for  the  de- 
fense of  the  ancient  religious  and  political  order  of  things 
against  the  encroachments  of  the  foreigners.  While  the  united 
royal  and  Russian  troops  were  fighting  against  the  Confeder- 
ates, dissatisfaction  was  brewing  among  the  Greek  Orthodox 
peasants  of  the  Polish  TJkraina.  Agitators  from  among  the 
Orthodox  clergy  and  the  Zaporozhians  instigated  the  peasants 
to  rise  for  their  faith  against  the  Poles,  who  had  formed  the 
Confederacy  of  Bar  for  the  annihilation  of  Greek  Orthodoxy. 
A  fictitious  decree  of  the  Russian  Empress  Catherine  II.,  known 
as  "  the  golden  Charter,''  circulated  among  the  people  from 
hand  to  hand,  giving  orders  "  to  exterminate  the  Poles  and 
the  Jews,  the  desecrators  of  our  holy  religion,"  in  the  Ukraina. 

The  new  haidamack  movement  was  headed  by  the  Zapo- 
rozhian  Cossack  Zheleznyak.  Beginning  with  the  month  of 
April  of  1768,  the  rebellious  hordes  of  Zheleznyak  raged 
within  the  borders  of  the  present  Government  of  Kiev,  mur- 
dering the  pans  and  the  Jews  and  devastating  towns  and 
estates.  The  haidamacks  were  wont  to  hang  a  Pole,  a  Jew,  and 
a  dog,  on  one  tree,  and  to  place  upon  the  tree  the  inscription : 

[*A  town  in  Podolia.] 


134  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

"  Lakh/  Zhyd/  and  hound — all  to  the  same  faith  bound."  A 
terrible  massacre  of  Jews  was  perpetrated  by  the  haidamacks  in 
the  towns  of  Lysyanka  and  Tetyev,  in  the  province  of  Kiev. 

From  there  Zheleznyak's  hordes  moved  towards  Uman/  an 
important  fortified  town,  whither,  at  the  first  rumor  of  the 
rebellion,  tens  of  thousands  of  Poles  and  Jews  had  fled  for 
their  lives.  The  place  was  crowded  with  refugees  to  such  an 
extent  that  the  newly-arrived  could  find  no  room  in  the  town 
itself,  and  had  to  camp  in  tents  outside.  Uman  belonged  to 
the  estate  of  the  Voyevoda  of  Kiev,  a  member  of  the  famous 
Pototzki  family,  and  was  commanded  by  a  "overnor  called 
Mladanovich.  Mladanovich  had  at  his  disposal  a  Cossack  de- 
tachment of  the  court  guard  under  the  command  of  Colonel 
Gonta.  Despite  the  fact  that  Gonta  had  long  been  suspected  of 
sympathizing  with  the  haidamacks,  Mladanovich  saw  fit  to 
dispatch  him  with  a  regiment  of  the.se  court  Cossacks  against 
Zheleznyak,  who  was  approaching  the  city.  As  was  to  be 
expected,  Gonta  went  over  to  Zheleznyak,  and  on  June  18, 
1768,  botli  commanders  turned  aroimd  and,  at  the  head  of  their 
armies,  marched  upon  Uman. 

During  the  first  day  the  city  was  defended  by  the  Polish 
pans  and  the  Jews,  who  worked  shoulder  to  shoulder  on  the 
city  wall,  fighting  off  the  besiegers  with  cannon  and  rifles. 
But  not  all  Poles  were  genuinely  resolved  to  defend  the  city. 
Many  of  them  merely  thought  of  saving  their  lives.  Governor 
Mladanovich  himself  conducted  peace  negotiations  with  the 
haidamacks,  and  was  reconciled  by  their  assurances  that  they 
would  not  lay  hands  on  the  pans,  but  would   be  satisfied 

[»  See  p.  i42,  n.  1.1 
['  See  p.  320,  n.  2.] 

['  Pronounced  Oomaii.  with  a  soft  sound  at  he  end.  In  Polish  the 
name  is  spelled  Human.'i 


THE  CENTER  DURING  ITS  DECLINE  185 

with  making  short  work  of  the  Jews.  When  the  haidamaeks, 
headed  by  Gonta  and  Zheleznyak,  had  penetrated  into  the 
town,  they  threw  themselves,  in  accordance  with  their  promise, 
upon  the  Jews,  who,  crazed  with  terror,  were  running  to  and 
fro  in  the  streets.  They  were  murdered  in  beastlike  fashion, 
being  trampled  under  the  hoofs  of  the  horses,  or  hurled 
down  from  the  roofs  of  the  houses,  while  children  were  impaled 
on  bayonets,  and  women  were  violated.  A  crowd  of  Jews  to  the 
number  of  some  three  thousand  sought  refuge  behind  the 
walls  of  the  great  synagogue.  When  the  haidamaeks  ap- 
proached the  sacred  edifice,  several  Jews,  maddened  with  fury, 
hurled  themselves  with  daggers  and  knives  upon  the  front 
ranks  of  the  enemy  and  killed  a  few  men.  The  remaining  Jews 
did  nothing  but  pray  to  the  Lord  for  salvation.  To  finish  with 
the  Jews  quickly,  the  haidamaeks  placed  a  cannon  at  the  en- 
trance of  the  synagogue  and  blew  up  the  doors,  whereupon  the 
murderers  rushed  inside,  turning  the  house  of  prayer  into  a 
slaughter-house.  Hundreds  of  dead  bodies  were  soon  swim- 
ming in  pools  of  blood. 

Having  disposed  of  the  Jews,  the  haidamaeks  now  proceeded 
to  deal  with  the  Poles.  Many  of  them  were  slaughtered  in 
their  church.  Mladanovich  and  all  other  pans  suffered  the 
same  fate.  The  streets  of  the  city  were  strewn  with  corpses  or 
with  mutilated,  half-dead  bodies.  About  twenty  thousand 
Poles  and  Jews  perished  during  this  memorable  "  Umau  mas- 
sacre." 

Simultaneously  smaller  detachments  of  haidamaeks  and 
mutinous  peasants  were  busy  exterminating  the  Shlakhta  and 
the  Jews  in  other  parts  of  the  provinces  of  Kiev  and  Podolia. 
Where  formerly  the  hordes  of  Bogdan  Khmelnitzki  had  raged, 
Jewish  blood  was  again  flowing  in  streams,  and  the  cries  of 


186  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA   AND  POLAND 

Jewish  martyrs  were  again  heard.  But  this  time  the  catas- 
trophe did  not  assume  the  same  gigantic  proportions  as  in 
1648.  Both  the  Polish  and  Eussian  troops  co-operated  in 
suppressing  the  haidamack  insurrection.  Shortly  after  the 
massacre  of  Uman,  Zheleznyak  and  Gonta  were  captured  by 
order  of  the  Russian  General  Krechetnikov.  Gonta  with  his 
detachment  was  turned  over  to  the  Polish  Government,  and 
sentenced  to  be  flayed  alive  and  quartered.  The  other  haida- 
mack detachments  were  either  annihilated  or  taken  prisoner 
by  the  Polish  commanders. 

In  this  way  the  Jews  of  the  Ukraina  became  a  second  time 
the  victims  of  typical  Russian  pogroms,  the  outgrowth  of 
national  and  caste  antagonism,  which  was  rending  Poland 
in  twain.  The  year  1768  was  a  miniature  copy  of  the  year  1648. 
A  commonwealth  in  which  for  many  centuries  the  relationship 
between  the  various  groups  of  citizens  was  determined  by 
mutual  hatred,  could  not  expect  to  survive  as  an  independent 
political  organism.  A  country  in  which  the  nobility  despised 
the  gentry,  and  both  looked  down  with  contempt  upon  tlie 
calling  of  the  merchant  and  the  burgher,  and  enslaved  the 
peasant,  in  which  the  Catholic  clergy  was  imbued  with  hatred 
against  the  professors  of  all  other  creeds,  in  which  the  urban 
population  persecuted  the  Jews  as  business  rivals,  and  the 
peasants  were  filled  with  bitterness  against  both  the  higher 
and  the  lower  orders — such  a  country  was  bound  to  perish. 
And  Poland  did  perish. 

The  first  partition  of  Poland  took  place  in  1773,  transferring 
the  Polish  border  provinces  into  the  hands  of  the  three 
neighboring  countries,  Russia,  Austria,  and  Prussia.  Russia 
received  the  southwestern  border  province:  the  larger  part 
of  White  Russia,  the  present  Governments  of  Vitebsk  and 


THE  CENTER  DURING  ITS  DECLINE  igy 

Moghilev.  Austria  took  the  southwestern  region :  a  part  of 
present-day  Galicia,  with  a  strip  of  Podolia.  Prussia  seized 
Pomerania  and  a  part  of  Great  Poland,  constituting  the 
present  province  of  Posen.  The  annexed  provinces  constituted 
nearly  a  third  of  Polish  territory,  with  a  population  of  three 
millions,  comprising  a  quarter  of  a  million  Jews/  The  great 
Jewish  center  in  Poland  enters  into  the  chaotic  "  partitional 
period"  (1772-1815).  Out  of  this  chaos  there  gradually 
emerges  a  new  Jewish  center  of  the  Diaspora — that  of 
Eussia. 

*  According  to  the  Polish  census  of  1764-1766  the  number  of 
Jews  in  Poland  and  Lithuania  amounted  during  those  years,  on  the 
eve  of  the  partitions,  to  621,000  souls. 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE  INNER  LIFE  OF  POLISH  JEWRY  DURING  THE 
PERIOD  OF  DECLINE 

1.  Jewish  S elf-Government 

The  fact  that  the  Jews  of  Poland,  despite  the  general  dis- 
integration of  the  country,  where  right  was  supplanted  by 
privilege  and  liberty  by  license,  were  yet  able  to  hold  their  own 
as  an  organized  social  unit,  was  principally  due  to  that  vast 
scheme  of  communal  self-government  which  had  become  an 
integral  part  of  Polish- Jewish  life  during  the  preceding  period. 
Surrounded  by  enemies,  ostracized  by  all  other  estates  and 
social  groups?,  Polish  Jewry,  guided  by  the  instinct  of  self- 
preservation,  endeavored  to  close  its  ranks  and  gather  sufficient 
inner  strength  to  offer  effective  resistance  to  the  hostile  non- 
Jewish  world.  One  of  the  appeals  issued  in  1676  by  the  central 
organ  of  Polish  Jewry,  the  "  Council  of  the  Four  Lands," 
begins  with  these  characteristic  words  : 

Gravely  have  we  sinned  before  the  Lord.  The  unrest  grows 
from  day  to  day.  It  becomes  more  and  more  difficult  to  live. 
Our  people  has  no  standing  whatsoever  among  the  nations.  In- 
deed, it  is  a  miracle  that  in  spite  of  all  misfortunes  we  are  still 
alive.  The  only  thing  left  for  us  to  do  is  to  unite  ourselves  In  one 
league,  held  together  by  the  spirit  of  strict  obedience  to  the  com- 
mandments of  God  and  to  the  precepts  of  our  pious  teachers  and 
leaders. 

These  sentences  are  followed  by  a  set  of  paragraphs  call- 
ing upon  the  Jews  of  Poland  to  obey  without  murmuring 
the  mandates  of  their  Kahals,  to  refrain  from  farming  state 
taxes,  from  accepting  the  stewardship  of  Shlakhta  estates. 


THE  INNER  LIFE  DURING  THE  DECLINE  189 

and  entering  into  business  partnership  with  non-Jews  without 
the  permission  of  the  Kahals,  for  the  reason  that  such  enter- 
prises are  bound  to  result  in  conflicts  with  the  Christian  popu- 
lation and  in  complaints  on  their  part  about  the  Jews.  The 
Council  also  forbids  "  intrusting  Jewish  goods  to  strange 
hands,"  resorting  to  the  intervention  of  the  Polish  authorities 
for  purposes  injurious  to  the  interests  of  the  community,  gen- 
erating schisms  and  party  strife  among  Jews,  and  similar 
actions. 

The  rabbinical  Kahal  administration  endeavored  to  impose 
its  will  upon  every  single  member  of  the  community  by  regu- 
lating his  economic  and  spiritual  life,  and  to  prevent  as  far  as 
possible  his  coming  in  contact  with  the  outside  world.  The 
greatest  assistance  in  this  endeavor  came  from  the  Polish  Gov- 
ernment. Attaching  great  value  to  the  Kahal  as  a  convenient 
tool  for  the  collection  of  Jewish  taxes,  the  Government  bestowed 
upon  it  vast  administrative  and  judicial  powers.  The  Govern- 
ment found  it  to  its  interest  to  deal  with  the  Jewish  com- 
munities rather  than  with  individual  Jews.  The  Kahal  was 
held  responsible  by  the  Government  for  the  action  of  every  one 
of  its  members  or  for  any  inaccuracy  of  the  latter  in  the  pay- 
ment of  taxes.  The  Kahal  extended  its  influence  in  pro- 
portion to  its  responsibility.  This  tutelage  of  the  Kahal 
resulted  in  strengthening  the  social  organization  of  the  Jews, 
while  it  curbed  at  the  same  time  the  personal  liberty  of  its 
members  to  a  greater  extent  than  was  demanded  even  by  the 
strictest  social  discipline. 

As  far  as  the  Polish  Government  was  concerned,  the  Kahal 
was  particularly  valued  as  a  responsible  collecting  agency 
among  the  Jews  on  behalf  of  the  exchequer.  At  the  sessions  of 
the  Waads,  the  wholesale  amount  of  the  Jewish  head-tax  (desig- 


190  THE  JEWS   IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

nated  as  gulgohth  in  the  Jewish  sources)  was  periodically 
fixed  and  apportioned  among  the  Kahal  districts.  Within  these 
Kahal  districts  as  well  as  in  the  individual  communities  the 
apportionment  of  the  taxes  was  the  function  of  the  local  Kahal 
elders,  who  were  in  charge  of  the  tax  collection,  and  were  held 
responsible  for  its  being  accurately  remitted  to  the  exchequer. 
In  1672  the  King  bestowed  upon  the  Kahal  elders  of  Lithuania 
the  right  of  excluding  from  the  community  or  of  punishing 
by  other  measures  those  recalcitrant  members  of  their  Kahals 
who  by  their  acts  were  likely  to  arouse  the  resentment  of  the 
Christian  population  against  the  Jews.  Ten  years  later  the 
Starosta  of  Brest  issued  a  rescript  forbidding  the  pans  to  lend 
money  to  private  persons  among  the  Jews  without  the  knowl- 
edge of  the  Kahal  elders.  This  was  done  in  compliance  with  the 
request  of  these  elders  themselves,  since  they  were  held  respon- 
sible for  the  insolvent  debtors  of  their  respective  districts.  On 
a  previous  occasion,  at  a  conference  of  the  representatives  of  the 
Lithuanian  communities  held  in  1670,  it  was  decided  to  prose- 
cute every  Jew  who  borrowed  meney  from  the  pans  or  priests 
without  the  knowledge  of  their  Kahal.  The  Voyevoda  of  Lem- 
berg  in  1693  forbade  letting  the  collection  of  various  state 
imposts,  such  as  the  excise  on  distilleries  and  retail  sale  of 
spirits,  to  Jews  unless  they  produced  a  certificate  of  the  Kahal 
elders  testifying  to  their  good  conduct.  The  right  of  owning 
real  estate  or  exploiting  articles  of  revenue  (leases  and  land- 
rent)  was  granted  to  private  persons  only  with  the  permission 
of  the  Kahal  (hazaTca).  Without  this  license  and  the  pay- 
ment of  a  special  tax  {hezkath  yishuh)  no  Jew  was  allowed 
to  settle  in  a  given  locality  or  to  enroll  his  name  in  the 
community. 


THE  INNER  LIFE  DURING  THE  DECLINE  191 

The  limits  of  Jewish  communal  autonomy  were  not  pre- 
cisely laid  down  by  the  law  of  the  state.  They  were  enlarged 
or  contracted  in  accordance  with  the  will  of  the  provincial 
administration,  the  voyevodas  and  starostas/  and  the  agree- 
ments between  these  officials  and  the  Kahals  concerning  their 
respective  spheres  of  influence.  The  model  of  a  free  communal 
constitution  may  be  found  in  the  statute  granted  by  the 
Voyevoda  of  Eed  Russia  (Galicia)  in  1G93  to  the  central  Kahal 
of  Lemberg.  This  statute  authorizes  the  Jewish  community 
to  hold  periodic  elections^  to  choose  its  elders  "  in  accord- 
ance with  its  customs  and  rights,"  without  the  slightest 
interference  on  the  part  of  the  local  administration.  The 
chosen  elders  are  recognized  as  the  lawful  officials  and  judges 
of  their  coreligionists  in  a  given  locality.  Disputes  and  litiga- 
tion between  Jew  and  Jew  are  in  the  first  instance  to  be  settled 
exclusively  by  the  Kahal  court  (heth-din) ,  consisting  of  rabbis 
and  elders,  the  latter  acting  as  a  jury.  Cases  between  Jews 
and  non-Jews  as  well  as  appeals  from  the  decisions  of  the 
Beth-Din  are  to  be  tried  by  the  voyevoda  court  and  the  special 
"Jewish  judge"  attached  to  it,  the  latter  being  a  Christian 
official  especially  appointed  for  such  cases.  This  judge  is  to  be 
selected  by  the  voyevoda  from  two  candidates  nominated  by  the 
Jewish  elders.  His  function  is  to  settle  disputes  and  com- 
plaints "in  a  definite  place  near  the  synagogue"  (in  the 
"Kahal  chamber"),  in  the  presence  of  the  Kahal  elders.  In 
his  verdicts  the  "  Jewish  judge  "  is  to  be  guided  not  only  by  the 
general  law^s  of  the  sta,te,  but  also  by  the  Jewish  common  law. 
The  regular  sessions  of  the  court  are  to  take  place  twice  a  week. 
In  special  cases  extra  sessions  may  be  arranged  for  on  any  day 
with  the  exception  of  the  Jewish  holidays.     Subpoenas  are 

['  See  p.  46,  n.  1,  and  p.  60,  n.  1.] 
13 


192  THE  JEWS   IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

issued  through  tlie  synagogue  beadle,  or  sliamash.'^  TJie 
protocols  of  the  court  are  to  be  kept  iu  the  Kahal  chamber  near 
the  synagogue.  The  appeals  from  the  judgments  of  this  court 
are  to  be  submitted  to  the  voyevoda  himself. 

The  elections  of  the  various  grades  of  Kahal  elders '  were 
held,  as  in  former  years,  annually  during  the  intermediate 
days  of  Passover.  This  custom  had  legal  sanction,  and  was 
enforced  by  the  local  authorities.  When,  in  1719,  the  elders 
of  the  Kahal  of  Brest,  prompted  by  personal  consider- 
ations, were,  in  spite  of  the  approach  of  Passover,  delaying  the 
holding  of  new  elections,  the  Lithuanian  hetman  '  sent  an  order 
from  Vilna  branding  the  act  of  the  Kahal  of  Brest  as  illegal, 
on  the  ground  that,  "  though  obliged  by  law  and  custom  to  hold 
new  elections  of  elders  every  Passover,  they  have  not  done  so, 
delaying  the  elections  for  their  own  personal  benefit." 

The  elections  were  indirect,  taking  place  through  a  limited 
number  of  electors,  and  only  persons  of  fairly  high  financial 
standing,  such  as  house-owners  or  large  tax-payers,  were 
allowed  to  be  candidates.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  intellectual 
qualifications  were  no  less  valued  than  financial  standing, 
scholars  occupying  an  honorable  i)lace  in  the  communal 
council. 

The  Kahal  administration  was  thus  oligarchic  in  character. 
The  lower  and  poorer  classes  had  no  representation  in  it,  and, 
as  a  result,  tlieir  interests  frequently  sufi^ered.  In  the  eigh- 
teenth century  complaints,  coming  from  the  Jewish  rank  and 
file,  are  constantly  heard  about  the  oppression  of  the  Kahal 

[*  Generally  pronounced  shammes.] 
»Seep.  r7. 

["  /.  e.  military  conmander.  Originally  the  title  is  found  among 
the  Cossacks;  see  p.  143,  n.  1.] 


THE  INNER  LIFE  DURING  THE  DECLINE  193 

"  bosses,"  about  the  inequitable  apportionment  of  taxes,  and 
similar  abuses. 

During  the  same  period  litigation  between  individual  Kahals 
frequently  arose  concerning  the  boundaries  of  their  respective 
districts.  This  litigation  was  due  to  the  fact  that  the  Jewish 
residents  of  the  townlets  and  villages  were  subject  to  the  juris- 
diction of  the  nearest  Kahal.  whose  income  they  helped  to 
swell.  Since,  however,  the  Kahal  districts  had  never  been 
officially  delimited,  several  Kahals  would  occasionally  lay 
claim  to  the  control  of  the  neighboring  townlets  and  settle- 
ments (called  in  Hebrew  sehiboth  and  yisliubim,  and  in  the 
official  language  priJcahalki ') .  Cases  of  this  kind  were  brougbt 
either  before  the  conferences  of  the  District  Kahals  or  the 
two  central  parliamentary  institutions  of  Polish  Jewry,  the 
"  Council  of  the  Four  Lands  "  and  the  "  Council  of  the  Prin- 
cipal Communities  of  Lithuania."' 

The  centralization  of  Jewish  self-government  in  these  two 
Councils — that  of  the  Crown  and  of  Lithuania — was  one  of  the 
main  factors  in  stabilizing  Jewish  autonomy  during  that 
period  of  instability  and  disintegration.  The  meetings  or 
Diets  of  these  Councils,  which  were  attended  by  the  representa- 
tives of  the  Kahals  and  the  rabbinate,  afforded  a  regular  op- 
portunity for  discussing  the  questions  affecting  the  general 
welfare  of  the  Polish  Jews  and  for  establishing  well-defined 
relations  with  the  Government  and  the  Diets  of  the  country. 
Attached  to  the  Waads  were  special  advocates  {shtadlans, 
designated  as  "general  syndics"  in  the  Polish  documents), 
who  went  to  Warsaw  during  the  sessions  of  the  Polish  Chamber 
for  the  purpose  of  submitting  the  necessary  applications  in 
defense  of  Jewish  rights  or  of  presenting  the  taxation  lists  of 

['See  p.  108,  n.  1.] 


194  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

the  Jewish  communities.  The  Waad  of  the  Crown  continued 
to  meet  periodically  in  Lublin,  and  Yaroslav  (in  Galicia),  and 
occasionally  in  other  places,  while  the  Lithuanian  Council 
assembled  in  different  towns  in  Lithuania. 

The  activity  of  these  central  agencies  of  self-government 
was  particularly  intensified  in  the  latter  part  of  the  seven- 
teenth century,  when  the  state  of  communal  affairs,  sorely 
shaken  during  the  preceding  period  of  unrest,  had  to  be 
restored.  The  Government  upheld  the  authority  of  the  Waads 
in  the  eyes  of  the  Jewish  population,  finding  it  more  convenient 
to  maintain  relations  with  one  or  two  central  organizations 
than  to  deal  with  a  large  number  of  local  agencies.  In  1687  the 
"Jewish  Elders  of  the  Crown"  (of  Poland  proper),  acting 
on  behalf  of  the  Council  at  Yaroslav,  lodged  a  complaint  with 
King  Sobieski,  declaring  themselves  unable  to  assume  the 
responsibility  for  the  collection  of  the  Jewish  head-tax  to  the 
amount  fixed  by  the  preceding  Polish  Diet,  owing  to  the  fact 
that  many  Jews  in  the  cities  and  villages,  benefiting  by  the  pro- 
tection of  the  pans  and  even  the  royal  officials,  refused  to 
acknowledge  the  jurisdiction  of  the  "  Elders  of  the  Crown  " 
and  shirked  their  duty  as  tax-payers.  In  view  of  this,  the  King 
issued  a  decree  condemning  in  strong  terms  "  such  interference 
and  disorder,"  and  enjoining  the  individual  Kahals  to  submit 
to  the  apportionment  of  taxes  by  the  Elders  of  the  Crown,  and 
altogether  to  acknowledge  their  jurisdiction  in  general  Jewish 
affairs,  under  the  pain  of  severe  fines  for  the  disobedient. 

The  gradual  deterioration  of  social  and  economic  conditions 
in  Poland  rendered  the  activities  of  the  Waads  more  com- 
plicated. The  Waads  were  now  called  upon  to  regulate  also  the 
inner  affairs  of  the  communities  as  well  as  their  relations  to  the 
Government  and  the  urban  estates,  the  magistracies  and  gTiilds. 


THE  INNER  LIFE  DURING  THE  DECLINE  195 

It  caunot  be  said  that  the  Waads  exhibited  on  all  occasions  an 
adequate  understanding  of  the  political  situation,  or  that  they 
did  full  Justice  to  the  far-reatliing  demands  of  a  truly  popular 
representation.  They  were  too  little  democratic  in  their  com- 
position to  accomplish  so  large  a  task.  The  delegates  to  the 
Waads  were  not  elected  by  the  communities  with  this  end  in 
view,  but  were  recmited  from  among  the  rabbis  and  elders  of 
the  principal  communities,  the  notables  and  "  influential  men.'* 
However,  in  spite  of  their  inadequate,  oligarchic  organization, 
the  Waads  were  largely  instrumental  in  unifying  communal 
Jewish  life  and  in  enhancing  discipline  in  Polish-Lithuanian 
Jewry. 

One  of  the  most  important  duties  of  the  Waads  was  the 
maintenance  of  Jewish  public  schools,  the  Talmud  Torahs  and 
yeshibahs,  which  at  communal  expense  imparted  religious 
instruction  primarily  to  poor  children  and  youths.  From 
the  minutes  of  the  Lithuanian  Waad  which  have  come  down 
to  us  we  learn  of  the  fact  that  ever}-  one  of  its  conferences 
placed  at  the  head  of  its  enactments  a  number  of  clauses  pro- 
viding for  the  obligatory  instruction  of  the  young  in  yeshibahs 
throughout  the  countrv^,  for  the  maintenance  of  the  students^ 
by  the  various  communities  in  cash  and  in  kind,  and  for  the 
formulation  of  the  curricula  and  the  statutes  of  all  these  insti- 
tutions of  learning.  No  wonder  that  the  endeavors  of  the  Waad 
were  crowned  with  success,  and  that  the  intellectual  level  of  the 
Jews  of  Lithuania  was  very  high.  It  must  be  owned,  however, 
that  their  mental  horizon  was  not  large,  inasmuch  as  the  whole 
course  of  study,  even  in  the  highest  schools,  was  limited  to  the 
Talmud  and  rabbinic  literature. 

Furthermore,  the  Council  of  the  Four  Lands  established  a 
control  over  the  books  issued  by  the  printing-presses  of  Cracow 


190  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

aucl  Lublin,  or  imported  from  abroad.  Only  such  books  were 
allowed  to  circulate  as  were  supplied  with  a  printed  approba- 
tion, or  hasTcama,  of  the  Waad  or  some  authoritative  rabbis. 
Very  frequently  the  Waad  also  intervened  in  the  struggle  of 
parties  and  sects  which,  as  will  be  seen  later,^  followed  the  rise 
of  the  Sabbatian  movement. 

Many  public  fimctions  which  lay  outside  the  sphere  of 
activity  of  the  central  Waads  were  discharged  by  the  local 
District  conventions,  or  "  Dietines  "  (waade  medinah,  or  waade 
galil),  the  latter  acting  as  the  agencies  of  the  Kahal  federations 
of  the  given  region.  In  official  language  these  District  federa- 
tions were  often  designated  as  "  synagogues."  Especially 
prominent  during  this  period  were  the  "  Volhynian  Syna- 
gogue," i.  e.  the  federation  of  the  Kahals  of  Volhynia,  and 
the  "Wliite  Eussian  Synagogue,"  composed  of  the  federated 
communities  of  the  present  Government  of  Moghilev.  The 
former  sent  its  representatives  to  the  Council  of  the  Four 
Lands,  while  the  latter  was  affiliated  with  the  Waad  of  Lithu- 
ania. The  periodic  conventions  of  these  two  "  synagogues " 
not  only  decided  the  allotment  of  taxes  within  the  Kahal  dis- 
tricts, but  also  took  up  questions  of  a  general  character,  such 
as  the  sending  of  advocates  to  the  general  Polish  Diet,  the 
instructions  to  be  given  to  the  deputies  of  the  central  Waads, 
the  problem  of  Jewish  education,  the  rabbinate,  etc.  Less 
noticeable  was  the  activity  of  the  Kahal  federations  of  the  three 
"  Crown  provinces  " :  Little  Poland  with  the  central  commun- 
ity of  Cracow,  Great  Poland  with  Posen,  and  Red  Russia 
with  Lemberg.  We  know,  however,  that  they  too  assembled 
periodically,  either  at  the  initiative  of  the  Kahals  them- 
selves or  by  order  of  the  voyevoda  of  a  given  province.    These 

'  See  pp.  204  et  seq. 


THE  INNER  LIFE  DURING  THE  DECLINE  197 

cou^  ontioiis  or  "  Dietiiies  "'  had  their  "  floor  leaders  "  or  "  mar- 
shals," after  the  pattern  of  the  provincial  Polish  Diets.  At 
least  such  was  the  insistent  demand  of  the  voyevodas,  who 
preferred  to  transact  their  official  business  with  the  responsible 
leaders  of  the  conferences.  The  interference  of  the  adminis- 
tration in  the  affairs  of  the  Jewish  autonomous  organization 
became  particularly  frequent  in  the  first  part  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  when  political  anarchy  in  Poland  reached  its  climax. 

The  whole  Kahal  organization  received  a  severe  blow  at  the 
hands  of  the  Polish  Government  in  1764,  The  General  Con- 
federacy which  preceded  the  election  of  King  Stanislav 
Augustus,  having  framed  a  new  "  constitution,"  decided  to 
change  fundamentally  the  system  of  Jewish  taxation.  Instead 
of  the  former  procedure  of  fixing  the  amount  of  the  head-tax 
in  loto,  and  leaving  its  allotment  to  the  Districts  and  individual 
communities  to  the  conferences  of  the  elders  and  Kahals,  the 
Diet  passed  a  resolution  imposing  a  uniform  tax  of  two  gulden 
on  every  registered  Jewish  soul  of  either  sex,  beginning 
with  the  first  year  after  birth.  This  change  was  justified  on  the 
ground  that,  in  the  opinion  of  the  Government,  the  previous 
wholesale  system  of  taxation  enabled  the  Kahals  to  collect  from 
the  tax-payers  a  much  larger  sum  than  originally  determined 
upon.  Moreover,  simultaneously  with  the  head-tax  other  im- 
posts were  levied  by  the  Kahals.  This  resulted  in  burdening 
the  Jewish  population  and  in  hiding  its  true  tax-paying  capac- 
ity from  the  Government,  while  according  to  the  new  system 
the  exchequer  was  likely  to  receive  a  much  larger  revenue. 

To  secure  the  accurate  collection  of  the  head-tax,  a  general 
registration  of  the  Jewish  population  in  the  whole  country 
was  ordered.  The  taxes  of  each  community  were  to  be  remitted 
by  its  Kahal  ciders  to  the  nearest  state  treasury.     In  eon- 


198  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

sequence,  the  functions  of  the  Kahals,  as  far  as  the  apportion- 
ment of  the  taxes  was  concerned,  were  officially  discontinued, 
and  the  Kahal  elders  became  mere  go-betweens,  who  handed 
over  the  tax  revenues  to  the  exchequer.  The  Government  ceased 
to  recognize  the  role  of  the  Kahal  as  a  fiscal  agent,  which  it 
had  formerly  valued  so  greatly,  and  no  more  considered  it 
necessary  to  uphold  the  authority  of  this  autonomous  organi- 
zation. The  whole  machinery  of  Jewish  self-government,  all 
these  Diets  and  Dietines,  the  Waads  and  District  conferences, 
suddenly  became  superfluous,  if  not  injurious,  in  the  eyes  of 
the  Government.  No  wonder  then  that  the  same  Diet  of  1764 
passed  a  resolution  forbidding  henceforth  the  holding  of  con- 
ventions of  District  elders  for  the  fixation  or  distribution  of 
any  tax  collections  or  for  any  other  purpose. 

This  limitation  of  the  activities  of  the  Kahals  and  the  entire 
abolition  of  tlie  central  agencies  of  Jewish  autonomy  took  place 
on  the  eve  of  the  abolition  of  political  independence  in  Poland 
itself,  eight  years  before  its  first  partition.  We  shall  see  later 
that  the  subsequent  period  of  unrest,  marked  by  the  trans- 
fer of  the  greater  part  of  Polish  territory  to  the  dominion 
of  Eussia,  introduced  even  greater  disorder  into  the  once  so 
firmly  consolidated  autonomous  organization  of  the  Jews,  and 
robbed  the  Jewish  people  of  one  of  the  mainstays  of  its 
national  existence. 

2.  Rabbinical  and  Mystical  Literature 

The  social  and  economic  decline  of  the  Polish  Jews,  which  set 
in  after  1648,  was  not  conducive  to  widening  the  Jewish  mental 
horizon,  wliich  had  been  sharply  defined  during  the  preceding 
epoch.  Even  at  the  time  when  Polish-Jewish  culture  was 
passing  through  its  zenith,  Eabbinism  reigned  supreme  in 


THE  INNER  LIFE  DURING  THE  DECLINE  199 

school  and  literature.  Needless  to  say  there  was  no  chance 
for  any  hroader  intellectual  currents  to  contest  this  supremacy 
during  the  ensuing  period  of  decline.  The  only  rival  of  Rab- 
binism,  whose  attitude  was  now  peaceful  and  now  warlike, 
was  Mysticism,  which  was  nurtured  by  the  mournful  disposi- 
tion of  a  life-worn  people,  and  grew  into  maturity  in  the 
unwholesome  atmosphere  of  Polish  decadence. 

The  intensive  Talmudic  culture,  which  had  been  fostered  by 
many  generations  of  rabbis  and  rosh-yeshibahs  was  not  dis- 
tributed evenly.  In  those  parts  of  the  country  which  had  suf- 
fered most  from  the  horrors  of  the  "terrible  decade"  (1648- 
1658),  in  the  Polish  TJkraina,  Podolia,  and  Volhynia,  the  intel- 
lectual level  of  the  Jewish  masses  sank  lower  and  lower. 
Talmudic  learning,  which  was  formerly  widespread  among 
the  Jews  of  those  provinces,  now  became  the  possession  of  a 
narrow  circle  of  scholars,  while  the  lower  classes  were  stagnat- 
ing in  ignorance  and  superstition.  A  firmer  position  was  still 
held  by  Rabbinism  in  Lithuania  and  in  the  original  provinces 
of  Poland.  But  here  too  the  intellectual  activity  became  pettier 
and  poorer,  not  so  much  in  quantity  as  in  quality.  It  is  still 
possible  to  enumerate  a  large  number  of  names  of  great  Tal- 
mudists  and  rabbis,  who  commanded  the  respect  and  admira- 
tion not  only  of  the  Jews  of  Poland  but  also  of  those  outside 
of  it.  But  in  the  domain  of  literary  productivity  these  scholars 
did  not  leave  so  profound  an  impress  on  posterity  as  their 
predecessors,  Solomon  Luria,  Moses  Isserles,  Mordecai  Jaffe, 
and  Meir  of  Lublin. 

Even  within  the  narrow  sphere  of  the  rabbinic  literary  out- 
put originality  was  sadly  missing.  The  "stars  "  of  Rabbinism 
who  were  engaged  in  learned  correspondence  (Shaaloth 
u-Teshuboth)  with  one  another  were,  as  a  rule,  immersed  in 


200  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

fruitless  controversies  about  complicated  and  petty  cases  of 
religious  and  legal  practice,  frequently  degenerating  into  the 
discussion  of  questions  which  do  not  arise  in  real  life.  Others 
wrote  diffuse  hair-splitting  commentaries  and  novellae  {hid- 
dushim)  on  various  tractates  of  the  Talmud,  including  those 
which  had  long  lost  all  legal  significance.  Thus  Aaron 
Samuel  Kaidanover,  Eabbi  of  Cracow,  who  had  narrowly 
escaped  the  massacres  of  1 648,  commented  on  the  section  deal- 
ing with  the  sacrifices  and  the  ancient  ritual  of  the  temple  in 
Jerusalem  (Birkhath  lia-Zehah^).  Still  others  wrote  annota- 
tions and  supplements  to  the  Shulhan  Ariikh*  Lithuania,  in 
particular,  excelled  by  the  number  of  its  celebrities  in  the  field 
of , rabbinic  scholasticism,  all  men  who  refused  to  acknowledge 
any  branch  of  secular  and  even  religious  knowledge  outside  the 
domain  of  Talmudic  dialectics. 

A  rare  exception  among  these  scholars  was  Jehiel  Halperin 
(ab.  1670-1746),  rabbi  of  Minsk,  who  wrote  an  extensive  his- 
toric chronicle  under  the  name  of  Seder  ha-Doroth, "  The  Order 
of  the  Generations."  Halperin's  work,  which  is  divided  into 
three  parts,  narrates  in  the  first  the  events  of  Jewish  history 
from  Biblical  times  down  to  the  year  1696.  The  second  part 
enumerates,  in  alphabetical  order,  the  names  of  all  the  Tannaim 
and  Amoraim,'  and  cites  the  opinions  and  sayings  attributed  to 
each  of  them  in  the  Talmud.  The  third  part  contains  a  list  of 
authors  and  books  of  the  post-Talmudic  period.     The  ori- 

[* "  Blessing  of  the  Sacrifice,"  allusion  to  I  Sam.  ix.  13.] 
"  Compare  Be'er  ha-Go1a,  "  'Veil  of  the  Exiles,"  by  Moses  Rivkes, 
who  fled  from  Vilna  during  the  massacre  of  1655;  Magen  Abraham, 
"  Shield  of  Abraham  "  [allusion  to  Gen.  xv.  1],  by  At)el  Gumbiner, 
Rosh-Yeshibah  in  Kalish,  whose  parents  perished  during  the  tirae 
of  unrest,  and  many  others. 

["Tannaim  are  the  Talmudic  authorities  before  200  c.  e.; 
Amoraim  are  those  between  that  date  and  the  conclusion  of  the 
Talmud,  in  500  c.  e.] 


THE   INNER   LIFE   DURING  THE  DECLINE  20l 

ginal  contribution  of  Ilalpcrin  consists  in  his  having  sys- 
tematized the  extremely  complicated  material,  and  rendered 
it  available  for  a  characterization  of  the  Talmudic  rabbis.  In 
all  else  he  merely  copied  earlier  chroniclers,  particularly 
David  Gans,^  without  any  attempt  at  a  critical  analysis.  He 
even  fails  to  render  account  of  such  important  events  of  his 
own  time  as  the  Messianic  movement  of  Sabbatai  Zevi.  The 
essence  of  history  to  him  is  identical  with  the  genealogies  of 
scholars,  saints,  and  rabbis ;  the  only  reason  for  existence  which 
in  his  judgment  historiography  may  claim  is  to  serve  as  the 
handmaid  of  Eabbinism.  Even  this  outlook  upon  history, 
narrow  though  it  be,  was  entirely  foreign  to  Halperin's  con- 
temporaries. 

Side  by  side  with  the  scholastic  literature  of  Eabbinism 
flourished  popular  ethical  literature  {musar ') .  Its  originators 
were  the  preachers  (darshanim),  some  of  whom  occupied  per- 
manent posts  attached  to  synagogues,  while  others  wandered 
about  from  town  to  town.  The  synagogue  sermons  of  that 
period,  which  have  come  down  to  us  in  various  collections,"  con- 
sist of  a  long  string  of  Haggadic  and  Cabalistic  quotations,  by 
means  of  which  the  Biblical  texts  are  given  an  entirely  per- 
verted meaning.  The  preachers  were  evidently  less  anxious 
to  instruct  their  audience  than  to  exhibit  their  enormous 
erudition  in  theological  literature.    Some  of  these  preachers  en- 

[*  Died  1613.  Author  of  the  Hebrew  chronicle  Tzemah  David, 
"  Branch  of  David."] 

['The  word  originally  means  "  chastisement  "  (generally  by  the 
father).  It  then  signifies  instruction,  particularly  ethical  in- 
struction.] 

"Such  as  'Amudeha  Shivah  ["Her  Seven  Pillars,"  allusion  to 
Prov.  ix.  1],  by  Bezalel  of  Kobrin,  1666;  Maor  ha-katon  ["The 
Lesser  Light,"  allusion  to  Gen.  i.  16],  by  Meir  of  Tarnopol,  1697; 
Nethib  ha-Yashar,  "  The  Right  Path,"  by  Naphtali  of  Minsk,  1712, 
and  many  others. 


202  THE  JEWS   IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

deavored  in  particular  to  foist  upon  the  people  the  notions 
of  the  "  Practical  Cabala." '  The  "  secret "  writings  of 
Ari  ^  and  his  school  were  circulated  in  Poland  in  manuscript 
copies,  which  went  from  hand  to  hand.  The  ideas  embodied  in 
the  Cabalistic  doctrine  of  Ari  were  popularized  in  the  shape 
of  "  gruesome  stories  "  concerning  life  after  death,  the  tortures 
of  the  sinners  in  hell,  the  transmigration  of  souls,  and  the 
exploits  of  demons. 

The  books  which  endeavored  to  inculcate  piety  among  the 
masses  by  means  of  these  stories  became  rapidly  popular. 
Towards  the  end  of  the  seventeenth  century,  the  Cabalist 
Joseph  Dubno  wrote  a  work  in  this  spirit  under  the  title 
Yesod  Yoseph,  "  Foundation  of  Joseph."  Prior  to  its  publica- 
tion, Dubno's  work  was  utilized  by  Hirsch  Kaidanover,  a  son 
of  the  above-mentioned  rabbi  of  Cracow,  Aaron  Samuel 
Kaidanover,'  and  issued  by  him  in  an  improved  and  amplified 
version  in  Frankfort-on-the-Main,  in  1705,  under  the  name 
Kah  ha-Yashar,  "  The  Just  j\rcasure.''  A  few  years  later  the 
book  was  published  also  in  the  Yiddish  vernacular,  and  became 
a  great  favorite  among  the  lower  classes  as  well  as  among 
women. 

The  Kab  ha-Yashar  breathes  a  spirit  of  gloomy  asceticism, 
and  is  expressive  of  a  funereal  frame  of  mind.  "  0  man," — the 
author  exclaims — ''  wert  thou  to  know  how  many  demons 
thirst  for  thy  blood,  thou  wouldst  abandon  thyself  entirely, 
with  heart  and  soul,  to  Almighty  God ! "  The  air,  according 
to  the  doctrine  preached  in  this  book,  is  filled  with  the  invisible 
spirits  of  the  dead  who  can  find  no  rest  in  the  other  world, 
and  teems  with  the  wandering  shadows  of  sinners  and  demons, 

[^See  p.  134,  a.  3.] 
['See  p.  134,  n.  4.] 
» See  p.  200. 


THE  INNER  LIFE  DURING  THE  DECLINE  203 

who  frequently  slip  iuto  living  beings  and  force  them  to  rage 
like  madmen.  Scores  of  "reliable^'  stories  are  quoted,  telling 
of  the  conflicts  between  men  and  demons  and  of  the  exploits  of 
miracle-workers  who  have  exorcised  the  evil  spirits  by  means  of 
incantations. 

Prominent  among  these  stories  is  an  account  of  the  expul- 
sion of  devils  from  a  house  in  Posen,  which  produced  a  great 
sensation  at  the  time.  Evil  spirits  had  been  constantly  haunt- 
ing the  inhabitants  of  the  house.  At  first  they  sought  advice 
of  the  local  Jesuit  priests.  When  the  remedy  employed 
by  the  latter  proved  of  no  avail,  the  inhabitants  invited  the 
famous  magician  and  miracle-worker  Joel  Baal-Shem  ^  from 
Zamoshch.^  The  miracle-worker  subjected  the  demons  to  a 
regular  cross-examination,  demanding  an  explanation  why 
they  refused  to  abandon  the  ill-fated  house.  At  the  cross- 
examination  the  demons  argued  that  the  house  was  theirs  by 
inheritance,  inasmuch  as  they  were  the  legitimate  children 
of  the  former  owner  of  the  house,  a  Jewish  artisan  who  had 
had  relations  with  a  female  devil.  As  a  result,  a  conference  of 
the  rabbis  of  Posen  was  held  in  the  presence  of  the  above- 
mentioned  miracle-worker,  and  their  verdict  was  that  the 
demons  had  no  claim  to  immovable  property  in  places  popu- 
lated by  human  beings,  but  were  limited  in  their  right  of 
residence  to  forests  and  deserts. 

Such  was  the  spiritual  pabulum  on  which  the  Jewish  masses 
were  fed  by  their  leaders.  A  writer  of  the  beginning  of  the 
eighteenth  century  makes  the  observation,  that  "  there  is  no 
country  where  the  Jews  are  so  much  given  to  mystical  fancies, 
devil  hunting,  talismans,  and  exorcism  of  evil  spirits,  as  they 

[*  On  the  meaning  of  the  name  see  p.  223,  n.  1.] 

[-  In  Polish,  Zamost\  a  town  in  the  region  of  Lublin.] 


201  THE  JEWS   IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

are  in  Poland."  The  demand  biought  forth  a  supply,  and 
even  the  celebrated  rabbis  frequently  devoted  themselves  to 
Cabalistic  exercises.  One  of  these  was  the  Eabbi  of  Ostrog  and 
Posen,  Naphtali  Cohen  (1640-1719),  of  whom  the  following 
curious  incident  is  related.  After  settling  in  Frankfort-on- 
the-Main,  he  made  the  people  believe  that  he  had  discovered  a 
magic  formula  against  fire.  As  luck  would  have  it,  a  fire  broke 
out  in  his  own  house,  and  destroyed  a  considerable  part  of  the 
Jewish  quarter.  The  ill-fated  Cabalist  was  sent  to  jail  on  the 
charge  of  careless  handling  of  fire  during  his  pyrotechnic 
experiments  (1711).  After  his  release  from  prison  Naphtali 
Cohen  led  the  life  of  a  wanderer,  entering  into  suspicious  rela- 
tions with  Hayyun,  the  notorious  emissary  of  the  Sabbatian 
sect,  though  afterwards,  when  Hayyun's  heresy  had  been  un- 
masked in  Amsterdam,  he  renounced  all  connection  with  the 
heretic.  During  the  contest  which  for  many  years  was  waged 
by  Emden  against  Eibeshiitz  and  his  mysterious  talismans,*  the 
majority  of  Polish  rabbis  sided  with  Eibeshiitz.  Evidently 
they  found  nothing  objectionable  in  the  attempt  to  cure  dis- 
eases by  means  of  cabalistically  inscribed  talismans. 

3.  The  Sabbatian  Movement 

The  mystical  and  sectarian  tendencies  which  were  in  vogue 
among  the  masses  of  Polish  Jewry  were  the  outcome  of  the 
Messianic  movement,  which,  originated  by  Sabbatai  Zevi  in 
1648,  spread  like  wildfire  throughout  the  whole  Jewish  world. 
The  movement  made  a  particularly  deep  impression  in  Poland, 
where  the  mystical  frame  of  mind  of  the  Polish-JeMdsh 
masses  offered  a  favorable  soil  for  it.      It  was  more  than  a 

[*  See  on  this  controversy  Gratz's  History,  Englisli  translation,  v. 
257  f.] 


THE   INNER  LIFE  DURING  THE  DECLINE  205 

mere  coincidence  that  one  and  the  same  year,  1648,  was  marked 
by  the  wholesale  murder  of  the  Jews  of  the  Ukraina  and  the 
first  public  appearance  of  Sabbatai  Zevi  in  Smyrna.  The 
thousands  of  Jewish  captives,  who  in  the  summer  of  that 
terrible  year  had  been  carried  to  Turkey  by  the  Tatar  allies 
of  Khmelnitzki  and  ransomed  there  by  their  coreligionists, 
conveyed  to  the  minds  of  the  Oriental  Jews  an  appalling 
impression  of  the  destruction  of  the  great  Jewish  center  in 
Poland.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  descriptions  of 
this  catastrophe  deeply  affected  the  impressionable  mind  of 
Sabbatai,  and  prepared  the  soil  for  the  success  of  the  propa- 
ganda he  carried  on  during  his  wanderings  in  Turkey,  Pales- 
tine, and  Egypt. 

When,  in  the  year  1666,  the  whole  Jewish  world  resounded 
with  the  fame  of  Sabbatai  Zevi  as  the  Messianic  liberator  of 
the  Jewish  people,  the  Jews  of  Poland  responded  with  par- 
ticularly keen,  almost  morbid  sensitiveness. 

The  Jews — says  the  contemporary  Ukrainian  writer  Galatov- 
ski — triumphed.  Some  abandoned  their  houses  and  property,  re- 
fusing to  do  any  work  and  claiming  that  the  Messiah  would  soon 
arrive  and  carry  them  on  a  cloud  to  Jerusalem.  Others  fasted  for 
days,  denying  food  even  to  their  little  ones,  and  during  that  severe 
winter  bathed  in  ice-holes,  at  the  same  time  reciting  a  recently- 
composed  prayer.  Faint-hearted  and  destitute  Christians,  hearing 
the  stories  of  the  miracles  performed  by  the  false  Messiah  and 
beholding  the  boundless  arrogance  of  the  Jews,  began  to  doubt 
Christ. 

From  the  South,  the  Sabbatian  agitation  penetrated  to  tlie 
North,  to  distant  White  Russia.  We  are  informed  by  a 
contemporary  monastic  chronicler,  that  on  the  walls  of  the 
churches  in  Moghilev  on  the  Dnieper  mysterious  inscriptions 
appeared  proclaiming  the  Jewish  Messiah  "  Sapsai." 


206  THE  JEWS   IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

In  the  course  of  the  eventful  year  in  which  the  whole  Jewish 
world  raved  about  the  coming  of  the  Messiah  and  deputations 
arrived  from  all  over  the  Jewish  world  at  the  "  Castle  of 
Splendor/'  Sabbatai's  residence  in  Abydos,  near  Constan- 
tinople, a  delegation  was  also  dispatched  by  the  Jews  of 
Poland.  In  this  delegation  were  included  Isaiah,  the  son  of 
David  Halevi,  the  famous  rabbi  of  Lemberg,  author  of  the 
Taz,'  and  the  grandson  of  another  celebrity,  Joel  Sirkis/  The 
Polish  delegates  were  sent,  as  it  were,  on  a  scouting  expedi- 
tion, being  instructed  to  investigate  on  the  spot  the  correctness 
of  the  rumors  concerning  the  j\Iessianic  claims  of  Sabbatai. 

When,  in  the  summer  of  1666,  they  were  presented  to  Sab- 
batai at  Abydos,  they  were  deeply  impressed  by  the  sight  of  the 
thousands  of  enthusiastic  admirers  who  had  come  from  all 
possible  countries  to  render  homage  to  him.  Sabbatai  handed 
the  Polish  delegates  an  enigmatic  letter,  addressed  to  the  Rabbi 
of  ^LfCmberg: 

On  the  sixth  day  after  the  resuscitation  of  my  spirit  and  light, 
on  the  tv/enty-second  of  Tammuz  ....  I  herewith  send  a  gift  to 
the  man  of  faith,  the  venerable  old  man.  Rabbi  David  of  the  house 
of  Levi,  the  author  of  Ture  Zahab — may  he  flourish  in  his  old  age 
in  strength  and  freshness!  Soon  will  I  avenge  you  and  comfort 
you,  even  as  a  mother  comforteth  her  son,  and  recompense  you  a 
hundredfold  [for  the  sufferings  endured  by  you].  The  day  of  re- 
venge is  in  my  heart,  and  the  year  of  redemption  hath  arrived. 
Thus  speaketh  David,  the  son  of  Jesse,  the  head  of  all  the  kings  of 
the  earth  ....  the  Messiah  of  the  God  of  Jacob,  the  Lion  of  the 
mountain  recesses,  Sabbatai  Zevi. 

The  gift  referred  to  in  the  letter  consisted  of  a  shirt  which 
Sabbatai  handed  over  to  Rabbi  David's  son,  with  the  instruc- 

['  See  p.  130.] 
V  Ibid.} 


THE   INNER  LIFE  DURING  THE  DECLINE  207 

tion  to  put  it  on  his  aged  and  feeble  father  and  recite  at  the 
same  time  the  words,  "May  thy  youth  be  renewed  like  that  of 
the  eagle ! " 

Having  learned  from  the  delegates  that  a  Cabalistic  propa- 
gandist, by  the  name  of  Xehemiah  Cohen,  who  predicted  the 
coming  of  the  Messiah,  had  appeared  in  Poland,  Sabbatai 
added  a  postscript  to  his  letter  in  which  he  asked  that  this 
"  prophet,"  being  the  forerunner  of  the  Messiah,  be  sent  to 
him  speedily.  The  omniscient  Messiah  failed  to  foresee  that 
this  invitation  spelled  ruin  for  him.  It  is  generally  conceded 
that  the  interview  between  Nehemiah,  the  Cabalistic  fanatic, 
and  Sabbatai  was  one  of  the  causes  that  accelerated  the  down- 
fall of  the  Messiah.  After  a  Cabalistic  argument  with  Sab- 
batai, which  lasted  three  days,  Nehemiah  refused  to  acknowl- 
edge him  as  the  expected  Messiah.  While  in  Adrianople  he 
revealed  Sabbatai's  plans  to  the  Turkish  authorities,  and  this 
led  to  the  arrest  of  the  pseudo-Messiah  and  his  feigned  con- 
version to  Islam. 

The  news  of  the  hideous  desertion  of  Judaism  by  the  re- 
deemer of  the  Jewish  people  was  slow  in  reaching  the  Jews 
of  Poland,  and  when  it  did  reach  them,  only  a  part  of  his 
adherents  felt  it  their  duty  to  abandon  him.  The  more 
credulous  rank  and  file  remained  steadfast  in  their  loyalty, 
hoping  for  further  miracles,  to  be  performed  by  the  mysterious 
savior  of  Judaism,  who  had  "  put  on  the  turban  "  temporarily 
in  order  to  gain  the  confidence  of  the  Sultan  and  afterwards  to 
dethrone  him.  When  Sabbatai  died,  Poland  witnessed  the 
same  transformation  of  political  into  mystical  Messianism 
which  was  taking  place  at  the  time  in  Western  Europe. 

The  proximity  to  Turkey  and  to  the  city  of  Saloniki,  the 
headquarters  of  the  Sabbatian  sect,  lent  particular  intensity  to 
14 


208  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

the  sectarian  nioveuicnt  in  Poland,  fomenting  a  spiritual  agi- 
tation in  the  Jewish  mavises  from  the  end  of  the  seventeenth 
down  to  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century.  The  main  center 
of  the  movement  came  to  be  in  Podolia,  part  of  which  had  been 
annexed  b}'  Turkey,  after  the  Polish-Turkish  War  of  1672,  and 
was  returned  to  Poland  only  in  1699  by  the  Peace  Treaty  of 
Carlowitz. 

The  agitators  and  originators  of  these  sects  were  recruited 
partly  from  among  the  obscure  masses,  partly  from  among  the 
Cabalists  whose  minds  were  befogged.  At  the  end  of  the 
seventeenth  century,  a  Lithuanian  Jew  by  the  name  of  Zadok, 
a  plain,  ignorant  man,  who  had  been  an  innkeeper,  began  to 
prophesy  that  the  Messiah  would  appear  in  1695.  About  the 
same  time  a  more  serious  propagandist  of  the  Messianic  idea 
appeared  in  the  person  of  the  Cabalist  Hayyim  Malakh.  Hav- 
ing resided  in  Turkey,  where  he  had  been  in  contact  with  the 
Sabbatian  circle  in  Saloniki,  Malakh  returned  to  Poland  and 
began  to  muddle  the  heads  of  the  Jews.  He  secretly  preached 
that  Sabbatai  Zevi  was  the  Messiah,  and  that,  like  Moses, 
who  had  kept  the  Israelites  in  the  desert  for  forty  years  before 
bringing  them  to  the  borders  of  the  Promised  Land,  he  would 
rise  from  the  dead  and  redeem  the  Jewish  people  in  1706,  forty 
years  after  his  conversion. 

Malakh's  propaganda  proved  successful,  particularly  among 
the  ignorant  masses  of  Podolia  and  Galicia.  Malakh  was  soon 
joined  by  another  agitator,  Judah  Hasid,  from  Shidlovitz  or 
Shedletz,^  Having  studied  Practical  Cabala  in  Italy,  Judah 
Hasid  returned  to  his  native  land  and  began  to  initiate  the 

[Mn  Hebrew  the  two  names  are  not  clearly  distinguishable.  The 
forme''  town,  in  Polish,  Szydlowiec.  is  near  Radom.  The  latter,  in 
Polish,  Siiedlce.  is  the  capital  of  the  present  Russian  Government 
of  the  same  name,  not  far  from  Warsaw.] 


THE  INNER  LIFE  DURING  THE  DECLINE  209 

studious  Polish  youths  into  this  hiddeu  wisdom.  The  circle  of 
his  pupils  and  adherents  grew  larger  and  larger,  and  became 
consolidated  in  a  special  sect,  which  called  itself  "  the  Pious," 
or  Hasidim.  The  members  of  this  sect  engaged  in  ascetic  exer- 
cises; in  anticipation  of  the  Messiah,  they  made  public  con- 
fession of  their  sins  and  inserted  mystical  prayers  in  their 
liturgy.  Hayyim  Malakh  joined  the  circle  of  Judah  Hasid, 
and  brought  over  to  it  his  Sabbatian  followers.  The  number 
of  "  the  Pious  "  grew  so  large  that  the  Orthodox  rabbis  became 
alarmed  and  began  to  persecute  them.  Under  the  effect  of 
these  persecutions  the  leaders  of  the  sect  started  a  propaganda 
for  a  mass-emigration  to  Palestine,  there  to  welcome  in  triumph 
the  approaching  Messiah. 

Many  Jews  were  carried  away  by  this  propaganda.  In  the 
beginning  of  1700,  a  troop  of  one  hundred  and  twenty  pilgrims 
started  on  their  way,  under  the  joint  leadership  of  Judah 
Hasid  and  Hayyim  Malakh.  The  emigrants  traveled  in 
groups,  by  way  of  Germany,  Austria,  and  Italy,  stopping  in 
various  cities,  where  their  leaders,  dressed,  after  the  manner  of 
penitent  sinners,  in  white  shrouds,  delivered  fiery  exhortations, 
in  which  they  announced  the  speedy  arrival  of  the  Messiah. 
The  lower  classes  and  the  women  were  particularly  impressed 
by  the  speeches  of  the  rigorously  ascetic  Judah  Hasid,  On 
the  road  the  Polish  wanderers  were  joined  by  other  groups  of 
Jews  desirous  of  visiting  the  Holy  Land,  so  that  the  number  of 
the  travelers  reached  1300  souls.  One  party  of  emigrants,  led 
by  Hayyim  Malakh,  was  dispatched,  with  the  help  of  charitable 
Jews  of  Vienna,  from  that  city  to  Constantinople.  Another 
party,  headed  by  Judah  Hasid,  traveled  to  Palestine  by  way 
ut"  Venice. 


210  THE  JEWS  IN   RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

After  much  suffering  and  many  losses  on  the  journey,  during 
which  several  hundred  died  or  remained  behind,  one  thousand 
reached  Jerusalem.  On  arriving  at  their  destination  the  new- 
comers experienced  severe  disappointment.  One  of  the  leaders, 
Judah  Hasid,  died  shortly  after  their  arrival  in  the  Holy  City. 
His  adherents  were  cooped  up  in  some  courtyard,  and  depended 
on  the  gifts  of  charitable  Jews.  The  destitute  inhabitants  of 
Jerusalem,  themselves  living  on  the  charity  of  their  European 
brethren,  were  not  in  a  position  to  support  the  pilgrims,  who 
soon  found  themselves  without  means  of  subsistence.  Dis- 
illusioned and  discouraged,  the  sectarians  rapidly  dispersed 
in  all  directions.  Some  joined  the  ranks  of  the  Turkish  Sab- 
batians,  who  posed  as  ^[ohammedans.  Others  returned  to 
Western  Europe  and  Poland,  mystifying  credulous  people  with 
all  kinds  of  wild  tales.  Still  others  in  their  despair  let  them- 
selves be  persuaded  by  German  missionaries  to  embrace  Chris- 
tianity. Hayyim  Malakh,  the  second  leader  of  the  pilgrims, 
remained  in  Jerusalem  for  some  time  with  a  handful  of  his 
adherents.  In  this  circle  symbolic  services,  patterned  after  the 
ritual  of  the  Sabbatians,  were  secretly  held,  and,  as  rumor  had 
it,  the  sectarians  performed  dances  before  a  wooden  image  of 
Sabbatai  Zevi.  Having  been  forced  to  leave  Jerusalem,  the 
dangerous  heretic  traveled  about  in  Turkey,  where  he  main- 
tained relations  with  sectarian  circles.  After  being  banished 
from  Constantinople  by  the  rabbis,  Hayyim  Malakh  returned  to 
his  native  country,  and  renewed  his  propaganda  in  Podolia  and 
Galicia.    He  died  about  1720. 

The  ill  success  of  the  "  Hasidim  "  failed  to  check  the  spread 
of  sectarianism  in  Poland.  In  Galicia  and  Podolia,  the  conven- 
ticles of  "  Secret  Sabbatians,"  dubbed  by  the  people  "  Shab- 
sitzvinnikes  "  (from  the  name  of  Sabbatai  Zevi),  or,  in  abbrevi- 


THE  INNER  LIFE  DURING  THE  DECLINE  211 

ated  form,  "  Shebsen/'  continued  as  before.  These  Sabbatians 
neglected  many  ceremonies,  among  them  the  fast  of  the  Ninth 
of  Ab,  which,  because  of  its  being  tlie  birthday  of  Sabbatai, 
had  been  transformed  by  them  from  a  day  of  mourning  into  a 
festival.  Their  cult  contained  elements  both  of  asceticism  and 
libertinism.  While  some  gave  themselves  over  to  repentance, 
self-torture,  and  mourning  for  Zion,  others  indulged  in 
debaucheries  and  excesses  of  all  kinds.  Alarmed  by  this  dan- 
gerous heresy,  the  rabbis  at  last  resorted  to  energetic  measures. 
In  the  summer  of  1722,  a  number  of  rabbis,  coming  from 
various  communities,  assembled  in  Lemberg,  and,  with  solemn 
ceremonies,  proclaimed  the  herein  (excommunication)  against 
all  Sabbatians  who  should  fail  to  renoimce  their  errors  and 
return  to  the  path  of  Orthodoxy  within  a  given  time. 

The  measure  was  partly  successful.  Many  sectarians 
publicly  confessed  their  sins,  and  submitted  to  severe  penances. 
In  most  cases,  however,  the  "  Shebsen  "  clung  stubbornly  to 
their  heresy,  and  in  1725  the  rabbis  were  forced  to  launch  a 
second  herem  against  them.  By  the  new  act  of  excommunica- 
tion every  Orthodox  Jew  was  called  upon  to  report  to  the  rab- 
binical authorities  all  the  secret  sectarians  known  to  him.  The 
act  of  excommunication  was  sent  out  to  many  communities,  and 
publicly  recited  in  the  synagogues.  But  even  these  persecu- 
tions failed  to  wipe  out  the  heresy.  Secret  Sabbatianism  con- 
tinued to  linger  in  the  nooks  and  corners  of  Podolia  and 
Galicia,  and  finally  degenerated  into  the  dangerous  movement 
known  as  Frankism. 

4.  The  Frankist  Sect 

Jacob  Frank  was  born  about  1726  in  a  town  of  Podolia.  His 
father  Judah  Leib  belonged  to  the  lower  Jewish  clergy,  among 
whom  all  kinds  of  perverted  mystical  notions  were  particularly 


212  'I'HE  JEWS   IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

in  vogue.  Judah  Jjeib  fell  under  suspicion  as  an  adherent 
of  Sabbatianisni,  and  was  expelled  from  the  community,  which 
he  had  served  as  rabbi  or  preacher.  He  settled  in  Wallachia, 
where  little  Jacob  grew  up  in  an  atmosphere  filled  with  mystic 
and  Messianic  fancies  and  marked  by  superstition  and  moral 
laxity.  From  his  early  youth  he  showed  repugnance  to 
study,  and  remained,  as  he  later  called  himself,  an  ignor- 
amus. While  living  with  his  parents  in  Wallachia,  he  first 
served  as  clerk  in  a  shop,  and  afterwards  became  a  travel- 
ing salesman,  peddling  jewelry  and  notions  through  the  towns 
and  villages.  Occasionally  young  Jacob  traveled  with  his 
goods  to  adjoining  Turkey,  where  he  lived  for  some  time  in 
Saloniki  and  Smyrna,  the  centers  of  the  Sabbatian  sect.  Here, 
it  seems,  Jacob  received  his  nickname  Frank,  or  Frenk,  a  desig- 
nation applied  in  the  East  to  all  Europeans.  Between  1752 
and  1755  he  lived  alternately  in  Smyrna  and  Saloniki,  and 
came  in  contact  with  the  Sabbatians,  participating  in  their 
symbolic,  semi-Mohammedan  cult.  It  was  then  and  there 
that  Jacob  Frank  was  struck  by  the  idea  of  returning  to  Poland 
and  playing  the  role  of  prophet  and  leader  among  the  local 
secret  Sabbatians,  who  were  oppressed  and  disorganized.  It 
was  selfish  ambition  and  the  spirit  of  adventure  rather  tlian 
mystical  enthusiasm  that  pushed  him  in  that  direction. 

In  1755  Frank  made  his  appearance  in  Podolia  and,  joining 
hands  with  the  leaders  of  the  local  "  Shebsen,"  began  to 
initiate  them  into  the  doctrines  he  had  imported  from  Turkey. 
The  sectarians  arranged  secret  meetings,  at  which  the  religious 
mysteries  centering  around  the  Sabbatian  "Trinity"  (God, 
the  Messiah,  and  a  female  hypostasis  of  God,  the  SheJchinah) 
were  enunciated.  Frank  was  evidently  regarded  as  the  second 
person  of  the  Trinity  and  as  a  reincarnation  of  Sabbatai  Zevi, 


THE  INNER  LIFE  DURING  THE  DECLINE  213 

being  designated  as  S.  S.,  i.  e.  Santo  Senior/  "  the  Holy  Lord." 
One  of  these  assemblies  ended  in  a  scandal,  and  turned  the 
attention  of  the  rabbis  to  this  new  agitation. 

During  the  fair  held  in  Lantzkorona/  Frank  and  two  score 
of  his  followers,  consisting  of  men  and  women,  had  assembled 
in  an  inn  to  hold  their  mystical  services.  They  sang  their 
hymns,  exciting  themselves  to  the  point  of  ecstasy  by  merry- 
making and  dancing.  Inquisitive  outsiders  managed  to  catch 
a  glimpse  of  the  assembly,  and  afterwards  related  that  the 
sectarians  danced  around  a  nude  woman,  who  may  possibly 
have  represented  the  Shekhinah,  or  Matronitha,^  the  third 
person  of  the  Trinity.  The  Orthodox  Jews  on  the  market- 
place, who  were  not  used  to  such  orgies,  were  profoundly  dis- 
gusted by  the  conduct  of  the  sectarians.  They  informed  the 
local  Polish  authorities  that  a  Turkish  subject  was  exciting 
the  people  and  propagating  a  new  religion.  The  gay  company 
was  arrested,  Frank,  being  a  foreigner,  was  banished  to  Turkey, 
and  his  followers  were  delivered  into  the  hands  of  the  rabbis 
and  the  Kahal  authorities  (1756). 

A  conference  of  rabbis  was  held  in  the  town  of  Satanov,^  and 
scores  of  men  and  women,  who  had  formerly  belonged  to  the 
Sabbatian  ^sect,  presented  themselves  to  confess  their  sins  and 
to  repent.  The  sectarians  owned  to  having  committed  acts 
which  were  subversive  not  only  of  the  Jewish  religion  but  also 
of  the  fundamental  principles  of  morality  and  chastity.  The 
women  admitted  that  they  had  violated  their  conjugal  fidelity, 

['  The  Turkish  Sabbatians,  from  whom  this  Spanish  title  was 
borrowed,  spoke  the  Judeo-Spanish  dialect.  On  the  abbreviation 
S.  S.,  see  Gratz,  Geschichte  der  Juden,  x ',  379,  n.  1.] 

['  In  Polish,  Lanckorona,  a  town  in  Podolia.] 

P Literally,  "the  Lady,"  a  Cabalistic  term  for  the  Divine 
Presence.] 

[•  In  Podolia.] 


214  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

and  told  of  the  sexual  excesses  in  vogue  among  the  sectarians, 
which  were  justified  by  mystical  speculations.  On  the  basis  of 
all  this  evidence,  the  conference  of  rabbis  in  Brody,  which 
met  during  the  sessions  of  the  Council  of  the  Four  I.ands,  pro- 
claimed a  strict  herem  against  all  heretics  who  had  failed  to 
repent,  and  forbade  all  contact  with  them.  They  also  pro- 
hibited the  study  of  the  Zoliar  before  the  age  of  thirty  and  of 
the  Cabalistic  writings  of  Ari,'  which  were  circulated  during 
that  period  in  manuscript  form,  before  the  age  of  forty  in 
order  to  avoid  the  snares  of  mystical  heterodoxy. 

It  was  then  that  the  excommunicated  and  persecuted  Podo- 
lian  sectarians,  prompted  by  their  leaders,  resorted  to  a  counsel 
of  despair.  Their  representatives  appeared  in  the  city  of 
Kamenetz-Podolsk  before  the  Catholic  Bishop  Dembovski,  and 
declared  that  the  Jewish  sect  of  which  they  were  members 
rejected  the  Talmud  as  a  false  and  harmful  work,  that  they 
only  acknowledged  the  Zohar,  tlie  sacred  book  of  the  Cabala, 
and  believed  that  God  was  one  in  three  persons,  of  whom  the 
Messianic  Eedeemer  was  one.  I'his  declaration  aroused  in 
Bishop  Dembovski  the  hope  of  converting  the  sectarians  to 
Christianity,  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  by  the  "  Messianic 
Redeemer "  they  understood  Sabbatai  Zcvi,  or  his  reincarna- 
tion, Jacob  Frank.  The  Bishop  ordered  the  publication  of  the 
ambiguous  confession  of  faith  of  the  "  Contra-Talmudists  "  or 
"^  Zoharists  " — as  the  sectarians  designated  themselves — and 
decided  to  arrange  a  religious  disputation  between  the  Frank- 
ists  and  the  rabbis.  The  Podolian  rabbis  received  strict  orders 
from  the  Bishop  to  send  delegates  from  their  midst  to  partici- 
pate in  the  proposed  disputation.  Their  failure  to  appear 
was  to  be  punished  by  fines  and  the  burning  of  the  Talmud. 

[*See  p.  134,  n.  4.] 


THE  INNER  LIFE  DURING  THE  DECLINE  215 

After  considerable  preparations,  the  disputation  between  the 
leaders  of  the  Contra-Talmudists  and  a  number  of  rabbis  took 
place  in  Kamenetz,  in  the  summer  of  1757,  in  the  presence  of 
Bishop  Dembovski  and  representatives  of  the  Catholic  clergy. 
The  contest  lasted  seven  days.  The  discussions  centered 
around  certain  peculiar  utterances  in  the  Talmud ic  Haggada, 
which  the  Frankists  cited  as  evidence  of  the  "  blasphemous  " 
character  of  the  Talmud.  The  rabbis  retorted  feebl}',  ham- 
pered by  their  inadequate  mastery  of  the  Polish  language; 
moreover,  when  the  dispute  turned  on  the  fundamental  dogmas 
of  Judaism,  they  refused  to  discuss  them  in  the  presence  of 
Catholic  priests.  The  Bishop  received  the  impression  that  the 
Talmudists  had  been  defeated.  In  the  autumn  of  1757  he 
issued  a  rescript  imposing  a  fine  upon  the  Talmudists,  to  be 
paid  out  to  their  opponents,  for  having  insulted  them  at  the 
fair  of  Lantzkorona,  and  ordering  that  all  Talmud  copies 
found  in  the  diocese  of  Podolia  be  taken  away  from  their 
owners  and  delivered  to  the  tlames. 

The  revolting  scenes  of  the  time  of  Louis  IX.,  of  France,  and 
Pope  Paul  IV.  were  re-enacted.  Thousands  of  Talmud  copies 
were  taken  away  from  the  Jews  and  carried  to  Kamenetz,  where 
they  were  publicly  burned  on  the  market-place.  The  sectarians 
witnessed  their  revenge  on  their  persecutors  and  triumphed.  It 
is  difficult  to  say  how  this  triumph  would  have  ended,  had  not 
Bishop  Dembovski  suddenly  died,  in  November,  1757.  The  sec- 
tarians were  deprived  of  their  mainstay,  and  became  again  the 
target  of  the  Kahal  authorities.  In  1758  they  finally  succeeded 
in  obtaining  a  safe-conduct  from  King  Augustus  III.,  but  even 
this  could  not  rescue  them  from  the  uncomfortable  position 
peculiar  to  those  who,  having  forfeited  the  sympathies  of  their 
own,  have  not  yet  been  able  to  gain  the  confidence  of  strangers. 


216  THE  JEWS   IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

At  that  critical  juncture  the  sectarians  decided  to  recall 
Jacob  Frank,  their  leader,  from  Turkey.  The  latter  imme- 
diately appeared  in  Podolia  with  a  new  plan,  which,  he  hoped, 
would  at  once  rid  him  and  his  adherents  of  all  opponents. 
In  the  discourses  delivered  before  his  followers  Frank  dwelt 
a  great  deal  on  his  exalted  mission  and  on  the  divine  revela- 
tions which  commanded  him  to  follow  in  the  footsteps  of 
Sabbatai  Zevi.  Just  as  Sabbatai  had  been  compelled  to  em- 
brace the  Mohammedan  faith  temporarily,  so  he  and  his 
adherents  were  predestined  from  above  to  adopt  the  Christian 
religion  as  a  mere  disguise  and  as  a  stepping-stone  to  the  "  faitli 
of  the  true  Messiah."  Filled  with  thirst  for  revenge,  the 
sectarians  hit  upon  the  fiendish  thought  of  lending  the  weight 
of  their  testimony  to  the  hideous  ritual  murder  accusation, 
which  was  agitating  the  whole  of  Poland  at  that  time,  claim- 
ing many  a  victim  in  the  Jewish  ranks. 

In  1759  the  Frankists  were  busily  engaged  in  negotiations 
with  the  highest  representatives  of  the  Polish  Church  concern- 
ing their  proposed  conversion  to  Christianity.  They  requested 
at  the  same  time  that  they  be  allowed  to  hold  a  public  dis- 
putation with  the  rabbis,  whom  they  hoped  to  expose  before 
the  non-Jews.  The  Primate  of  the  Polish  Church  Lubinski 
and  the  Papal  Nuncio  Serra  received  the  advances  of  the  Frank- 
ists with  considerable  skepticism.  But  the  temporary  adminis- 
trator of  the  diocese  of  Lemberg,  Canon  Mikolski,  insisted  that 
their  request  be  complied  with.  A  second  religious  disputa- 
tion between  the  Talmudists  and  the  Frankists,  presided  over 
by  Mikolski,  was  held  in  Lemberg,  and  took  up  eleven  sessions 
(July- August,  1759).  At  this  disputation  the  Orthodox  Jews 
were  represented  by  a  number  of  Talmudists,  headed  by  the 
Kabbi  of  Lemberg,  Hayyim  Eapoport,  while  the  cause  of  the 


The  inner  life  during  the  decline        317 

sectarians  was  championed  by  Solomon  Shorr  and  Leib  Krysa, 
the  principal  associates  of  Frank,  as  well  as  several  learned 
Catholic  theologians. 

The  sectarians  advanced  seven  theses  as  a  basis  for  dis- 
cussion. Six  dealt  with  the  Messianic  belief  and  the  dogma 
of  the  Trinity,  the  latter  having  been  practically  adopted  by 
them  in  its  Christian  formulation.  The  seventh  asserted  that 
"  the  Talmud  considers  the  use  of  Christian  blood  obligatory." 
The  discussion  about  the  first  six  clauses  was  rather  tame  and 
conventional,  largely  owing  to  the  fact  that  the  rabbis,  who 
were  afraid  of  offending  the  religious  susceptibilities  of  the 
Christians,  declined  in  many  cases  to  state  their  views.  Only 
when  it  came  to  the  last  point,  the  malicious  accusation  of 
ritual  murder,  were  the  rabbis  energetic  in  refuting  it,  protest- 
ing vehemently  against  the  Frankists,  who  openly  appeared  as 
the  enemies  of  their  people. 

When  the  disputation  was  over,  the  sectarians  were  called 
upon  to  prove  their  devotion  to  Christianity  by  immediate 
action.  The  conversion  of  the  Frankists  began.  The  baptis- 
mal ceremony  was  performed  with  great  solemnity  in  the 
churches  of  Lemberg,  members  of  the  Polish  nobility  acting 
as  sponsors.  The  neophytes  assumed  the  family  names  and 
titles  of  their  godfathers,  and  in  this  way  received  admission 
into  the  ranks  of  the  Polish  nobility.  In  Lemberg  alone  514 
men  and  women,  among  them  Leib  Krysa,  Solomon  Shorr,  and 
the  other  fellow-workers  of  Frank,  were  converted  in  the 
course  of  1759  and  1760.  Frank  entered  Lemberg  with  great 
pomp,  riding  in  a  carriage  drawn  by  six  horses  and  surrounded 
by  a  large  body-guard.  Here  he  submitted  to  a  preliminary 
baptism,  desiring  to  complete  the  ceremony  with  greater 
solemnity  in  Warsaw.    Having  arrived  in  the  Polish  capital. 


218  THE  JEWS   IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

Frank  petitioned  King  Augustus  III.  to  act  as  his  godfather. 
The  King  consented,  and  the  conversion  of  the  sectarian  chief 
to  Catholicism  took  place  in  Xovember,  1759,  with  extraor- 
dinary splendor,  in  the  prei^enee  of  the  royal  family  and  the 
court  dignitaries.  At  his  baptism  Jacob  Frank  assumed  the 
name  Joseph. 

However,  the  attitude  of  the  Poliph  clergy  towards  the 
newly-converted  sectarians  remained  as  skeptical  as  theretofore. 
Frank's  obscure  past,  his  strange  manner  of  living,  the  rever- 
ence accorded  to  him  by  his  followers,  who  styled  him  the 
**  Holy  Lord  " — all  this  was  bound  to  arouse  the  suspicion  of 
the  ecclesiastic  authorities.  The  indiscretion  of  some  Frank- 
ists,  or  perhaps  a  secret  denunciation,  confirmed  the  clergy  in 
their  suspicions.  They  learned  that  the  conversion  of  the  sec- 
tarians had  been  an  act  of  hypocrisy,  that  Frank  continued  to 
pose  among  them  as  Messiah  and  "  Holy  Lord,"  and  that  the 
Trinity  professed  by  them  had  very  little  in  common  with  the 
corresponding  Christian  dogma.  They  decided  to  investigate 
the  matter,  and,  in  case  their  suspicion  should  prove  true,  to 
indict  the  leaders  of  the  sect  before  the  ecclesiastic  courts. 

In  January,  1760,  Frank  was  arrested  in  Warsaw  by  order  of 
the  highest  Church  authorities,  and  subjected  to  a  searching 
cross-examination.  With  all  his  astuteness,  the  chief  of  the 
Frankists  failed  to  convince  the  judges  of  his  Christian  Ortho- 
doxy. Many  of  the  depositions  made  by  his  disciples  or  by 
himself  only  strengthened  the  case  against  him.  The  ecclesi- 
astic court,  having  previously  ascertained  the  attitude  of  Rome 
through  the  Papal  Nuncio,  sentenced  Frank  to  imprisonment 
in  the  citadel  of  Chenstokhov  and  to  detention  in  the  local 
monastery,  so  as  to  prevent  all  contact  with  his  followers. 


THE  INNER  LIFE  DURING  THE  DECLINE  219 

Thirteen  years  (1760-1 772 )  Frank  remained  in  the  citadel, 
but  the  Catholic  clergy  failed  in  its  purpose.  The  Frankists 
continued  their  relations  with  the  "  Holy  Lord,"  who  as  a 
suffering  Messiah  was  now  surrounded  in  their  eyes  with  a  new 
halo.  They  even  managed  to  penetrate  into  Chenstokhov 
itself,  and  settled  in  large  numbers  on  the  outskirts  of  the 
town,  which,  in  accordance  with  old  Messianic  notions,  they 
designated  as  "  the  gates  of  Eome."  '  They  beheld  in  Frank's 
fate  a  repetition  of  the  destiny  of  Sabbatai  Zevi,  who  had  been 
equally  kept  prisoner  in  the  castle  of  Abydos,  near  the  capital 
of  Turkey.  They  were  inspired  by  Frank's  mystical  discourses 
and  epistles,  the  gist  of  which  was  that  their  only  salvation  lay 
in  the  "  holy  religion  of  Edom,"  a  term  by  which  he  understood 
a  strange  medley  of  Christian  and  Sabbatian  ideas.  The  new 
religion  was  devoid  of  any  truly  religious  or  moral  element,  and 
the  same  applies  to  the  life  of  Frank,  who  cynically  expressed 
himself  to  his  followers :  "  I  have  come  to  rid  the  world  of  all 
the  laws  and  statutes  which  have  been  in  existence  hitherto." 
There  was  nothing  reminding  one  of  an  apostle  about  the  con- 
duct of  the  "  Holy  Lord/*  based  as  it  was  on  mystification 
and  on  the  endeavor  to  accommodate  oneself  to  the  environ- 
ment. 

The  first  partition  of  Poland  put  an  end  to  Frank's  impris- 
onment in  the  monastery.  He  was  released  by  the  commander 
of  the  Eussian  troops  which  occupied  Chenstokhov  towards  the 
end  of  1773.  After  a  brief  stay  in  Warsaw,  where  he  managed 
to  re-establish  direct  relations  with  the  sectarians,  Frank, 
accompanied  by  his  family  and  a  large  retinue,  left  the  bound- 
aries of  Poland  and  settled  in  Briinn,  in  ]\roravia  (1773). 

^  Tara  de-R6mS.  the  legendary  dwelling-place  of  the  Messiah. 
[Comp.  Sanhedrin  98a.] 


220  ,    THE  JEWS   IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

The  further  exploits  of  this  adventurer  were  performed  iii  a 
new  field,  in  Western  Europe.  In  Catholic  Austria,  Frank 
assumed  the  role  of  a  Christian  missionary  among  the  Jews, 
and  even  succeeded  in  gaining  the  favor  of  the  Court  in  Vienna. 
However,  his  past  soon  became  known,  and  he  had  to  leave 
Austria.  Frank  settled  in  Germany,  in  Offenbach,  near  Frank- 
fort-on-the-Main,  where  he  arrogated  to  himself  the  title  of 
"  Baron  of  Oifenbach."  In  his  new  place  of  residence,  Frank, 
assisted  by  his  daughter  Eve,  or  the  "  Holy  Lady,"  stood  at  the 
head  of  a  secret  circle  of  sectarians,  and,  supported  by  his 
Polish  and  Moravian  partisans,  led  a  life  of  ease  and  luxury. 

After  the  death  of  Frank,  which  occurred  in  1791,  his  sect 
began  to  disintegrate,  and  the  flow  of  gifts  for  the  benefit  of 
the  Offenbach  Society  gradually  ceased.  After  unsuccessful 
endeavors  to  attract  sectarians,  Frank's  successor.  Eve,  found 
herself  entangled  in  debts,  and,  pursued  by  her  creditors,  died 
in  1816  in  Offenbach.  The  Frankists  who  had  stayed  in 
Poland,  though  outwardly  Catholics,  remained  loyal  to  the 
"  Holy  Lord  "  down  to  the  day  of  his  death.  For  a  long  time 
they  intermarried  among  themselves,  and  were  known  in 
Poland  under  the  name  of  "  Neophytes."  But  by  and  by  they 
were  merged  with  the  Catholic  population,  gradually  losing 
the  character  of  a  sect,  and  were  at  last  completely  absorbed  by 
their  Polish  environment. 

5.  The  Rise  of  Hasidism  and  Iseael  Baal-Shem-Tob 

Frankism  proved  the  grave  of  Sabbatianism,  by  turning  its 
dreamy  mysticism  into  mystification,  and  its  lofty  Messianism 
into  the  selfish  desire  to  escape  Jewish  suffering  through  dis- 
loyalty to  Judaism.  It  was  a  grossly  negative,  materialistic 
movement,  which  disregarded  the  noblest  strivings  and  the 


THE   INNER  LIFE  DURING  THE  DECLINE  O'M 

most  genuine  longings  of  the  Jewish  soul.  The  need  for  a 
deepened  religious  consciousness,  which  the  formalities  of 
Rahbinism  had  failed  to  satisfy,  remained  as  alive  as  ever 
among  the  Jewish  masses.  This  need  was  bound  to  give  rise 
to  a  positive  religious  movement,  which  was  in  harmony  with 
the  traditional  ideas  of  the  Jewish  people. 

In  the  spiritual  life  of  Polish  Jewry  the  distinction  between 
its  two  ethnographic  groups,  the  northwestern,  the  Lithu- 
anian and  White  Russian,  and  tlie  southwestern,  the  Polish 
and  Ukrainian,  became  more  and  more  accentuated.  In  the 
northwest  ^abbinic  scholasticism  reigned  supreme,  and  the 
caste  of  scholars,  petrified  in  the  ideas  of  Talmudic  Babylonia, 
was  the  determining  factor  in  public  life. 

Talmudic  scholarship — remarks  a  contemporary  Lithuanian 
Jew,  the  subsequently  famous  philosopher  Solomon  Maimon — 
constitutes  the  principal  object  of  education  among  us.  Wealth, 
physical  attractions,  or  endowments  of  any  kind,  though  appre- 
ciated by  the  people,  do  not,  in  its  estimation,  compare  with  the 
dignity  of  a  good  Talmudist.  The  Talmudist  has  the  first  claim 
on  all  oflRces  and  honorary  posts  in  the  community.  Whenever  he 
appears  at  an  assembly,  all  rise  before  him,  and  conduct  him  to  the 
foremost  place.  He  is  the  confidant,  the  counselor,  the  legislator, 
and  the  judge  of  the  plain  man. 

Matters,  however.^  were  different  in  Podolia,  Galicia,  Vol- 
hynia,  and  in  the  whole  southwestern  region  in  general.  Here 
the  Jewish  masses  were  much  further  removed  from  the 
sources  of  rabbinic  learning,  having  emancipated  themselves 
from  the  influence  of  the  Talmudic  scholar.  While  in  Lithu- 
ania dry  book-learning  was  inseparable  from  a  godly  life,  in 
Podolia  and  Volhynia  it  failed  to  satisfy  the  religious  crav- 
ings of  tlie  common  man.  The  latter  was  in  need  of  beliefs 
easier  of  understanding  and  making  an  appeal  to  the  heart 


222  THE  JEWS   IN  RUSSIA   AND  POLAND 

rather  than  to  the  mind.  lie  found  these  beliefs  in  the 
Cabala,  in  mystic  and  Messianic  doctrines,  in  Sabbatianism. 
He  even  let  himself  be  carried  away  by  teachings  which  ulti- 
mately proved  heterodox  and  subversive  of  the  spirit  of 
Judaism.  With  the  downfall  of  secret  Sabbatianism,  which 
had  been  utterly  compromised  by  the  Frankists,  disappeared 
the  last  will-o'-the-wisp  of  Messianisra,  which  had  beckoned 
to  the  groping  Jewish  masses.  It  was  necessary  to  fill  tlio 
mental  void  thus  created,  and  provide  new  food  for  the  un- 
satisfied religious  longings.  This  task  was  undertaken  by 
the  new  Ilasidism  ("Doctrine  of  Piety"),  originated  by 
Besht,  a  product  of  obscure  Podolian  Jewry. 

Israel  Baal-Shem-Tob  (in  abbreviated  form  BeSHT)  was 
born  about  1700  on  the  border  line  of  Podolia  and  Wallachia  of 
a  poor  Jewish  family.  Having  lost  his  parents  at  an  early  age, 
he  was  cared  for  by  some  charitable  townsmen  of  his,  who  sent 
him  to  a  Jewish  school,  or  heder,  to  study  the  Talmud.  The 
heder-learning  did  not  attract  the  boy,  endowed  as  he  was 
with  an  impressionable  and  dreamy  disposition.  Israel  fre- 
quently played  the  truant,  and  was  more  than  once  discovered 
in  the  neighboring  forest  lost  in  thought.  The  boy  was  finally 
given  up  as  a  bad  case,  and  expelled  from  school.  At  the  age 
of  twelve,  Israel,  confronted  by  the  necessity  of  earning  a 
livelihood,  became  a  hehelfer,  an  assistant  teacher,  and,  a 
little  later,  obtained  the  post  of  a  synagogue  beadle.  In  his 
new  dignity,  Besht  conducted  himself  rather  oddly.  In  day- 
time he  slept,  or  pretended  to  sleep,  but  at  night,  when  all 
alone  in  the  synagogue,  he  prayed  fervently,  or  read  soul- 
saving  books.  Those  around  him  looked  upon  him  as  an  eccen- 
tric or  maniac.  He  nevertheless  persisted  in  his  course.  He 
delved  more  and  more  deeply  in  the  mysteries  of  the  Prac- 


THE  INNER  LIFE  DURING  THE  DECLINE  223 

tical   Cabala,    studied   the   "  Ari   manuscripts,"    which    were 
circulated  from  hand  to  hand,  and  acquainted  himself  with  the 
art  of  performing  miracles  by  means  of  Cabalistic  incantations. 
When  about  twenty  years  of  age,  Israel  settled  in  Brody, 
one  of  the  principal  cities  of  Galicia,  and  married  the  sister 
of  the  well-known  rabbi  and  Cabalist  of  the  town,  Gershon 
Kutover.      Kutover  at  first  tried  to  interest  his  brother-in- 
law  in  the  study  of  the  Talmud,  but,  finding  him  entirely 
indifferent  to  this  kind  of  mental  occupation,  the  proud  rabbi, 
abashed  by  his  relationship  with  such  an  ignoramus,  advised 
Israel  to  leave  Brody.    Besht  followed  the  advice,  and  removed 
with  his  wife  to  a  village  between  the  towns  of  Kuty  and  Kosovo. 
He  frequently  retired  to  the  neighboring  Carpathian  moun- 
tains, where  in  strict  solitude  he  fasted,  prayed,  and  lost 
himself  in  religious  speculation.    He  eked  out  an  existence  for 
himself  and  his  wife  by  digging  clay  in  the  mountains,  which 
his  wife  carried  into  the  city  for  sale.    According  to  the  Hasidic 
legend,  Israel  Besht  led  this  kind  of  life  for  seven  years.     It 
was  a  period  of  preparation  for  his  subsequent  calling.     At 
the  end  of  his  mystical  exploits  in  the  Carpathian  mountains, 
Besht  lived  in  the  Galician  town  of  Tlusta,  where  he  occupied 
minor  ecclesiastic  positions,  acting  in  succession  as  melammed, 
shohet,   and   cantor   of   a   synagogue.     He   was   universally 
regarded  as  an  ignoramus,  no  one  being  aware  of  his  inner- 
most cravings. 

At  last,  after  reaching  the  age  of  thirty-six,  Besht  decided, 
— by  inspiration  from  above,  as  the  Hasidim  believe, — that  the 
time  had  come  "to  reveal  himself  to  the  world."  He  began 
to  practice  as  a  Baal-Shem,^  t.  e.  as  a  magician  and  Cabalist 

['  Literally,  "  Master  of  the  Name,"  a  man  able  to  perform 
miracles  through  the  Name  of  God.] 

15 


224  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA   AND   POLAND 

and  to  cure  diseases  by  means  of  secret  incaiitntioiis.  aniuleis 
(kameoth),  and  medicinal  herbs.  The  figure  of  a  wandering 
Baal-Shem  was  not  unusual  among  the  Polish  Jews  of  the 
time,  and  Besht  chose  this  career,  for  it  subsequently  proved 
a  convenient  medium  for  his  religious  propaganda.  He  trav- 
eled about  the  towns  and  villages  of  Volhynia  and  Podolia, 
curing  with  his  herbs  and  incantations  not  only  Jews,  but  also 
peasants  and  even  pans,  who  had  great  faith  in  magic  remorlies. 
He  won  the  reputation  of  a  miracle-worker,  and  was  nicknamed 
the  "good  Baal-Shem"  (in  Hebrew,  Baal-Shem-Tob).  The 
Jewish  masses  felt  that  he  was  not  the  ordinary  type  of  con- 
jurer, but  a  man  of  righteousness  and  saintliness.  Bosht  was 
frequently  called  upon  to  foretell  the  future,  and,  opening  at 
random  the  Zohar  before  him,  made  predictions  as  suggested 
by  the  holy  book.  In  curing  the  sick,  he  resorted  not  only  to 
herbs  and  incantations,  but  also  to  prayer.  While  praying,  he 
often  fell  into  ecstasy  and  gesticulated  violently. 

Besht  became  the  favorite  of  the  masses.  Warm-hearted 
and  simple  in  disposition,  he  managed  to  get  close  to  the 
people  and  find  out  their  spiritual  wants.  Originally  a  healer 
of  the  body,  he  imperceptibly  grew  to  be  a  teacher  of  religion. 
He  taught  that  ti:a.e_salvation  lies  npt_  in  JCalmudic  learning, 
but  in  whole-hearted  devotion  to  God,  in  unsophisticated  faith 
and  fervent  prayer.  -  When  he  encountered  men  of  learning, 
Besht  endeavored  to  convince  them  of  the  correctness  of  his 
views  by  arguments  from  the  Cabala.  But  he  did  not  recog- 
nize that  ascetic  form  of  Cabala  which  enjoined  upon  the  Jew 
to  foster  a  mournful  frame  of  mind,  to  kill  the  flesh,  and  strive 
after  the  expiation  of  sin  in  order  to  accelerate  the  coming  of 
the  Messiah.  He  rather  had  in  mind  that  Cabala  which  seeks 
to  establish  an  intimate  communion  between  man  and  God, 


THE  INNER  LIFE  DURING  THE  DECLINE  2'2.") 

cheering  the  human  soul  by  the  belief  in  the  goodness  of  God, 
encouraging  and  comforting  the  poor,  the  persecuted,  and  the 
suffering.  Besht  preached  that  the  plain  man,  imbued  with 
naive  faith,  and  able  to  pray  fervently  and  whole-heartedly, 
was  dearer  and  nearer  to  God  than  the  learned  formalist  spend- 
ing his  whole  life  in  the  study  of  the  Talmud.  Not  to  speculate 
in  religious  matters,  but  to  believe  blindly  and  devotedly,  such 
was  the  motto  of  Besht.  This  simplified  formula  of  Judaism 
appealed  to  the  Jewish  masses  and  to  those  democratically 
inclined  scholars  who  were  satisfied  neither  with  rabbinic 
scholasticism  nor  with  the  ascetic  Cabala  of  the  school  of  Ari. 

About  1740  Besht  chose  for  his  permanent  residence  the 
small  Podolian  town  of  Medzhibozh.  The  role  of  sorcerer 
and  miracle-worker  gradually  moved  to  the  background,  and 
Besht  emerged  as  a  full-fledged  teacher  of  religion.  He 
placed  himself  at  the  head  of  his  large  circle  of  disciples  and 
followers,  who  were  initiated  by  him  into  the  mysteries  of  the 
new  doctrine,  not  by  way  of  systematic  exposition,  but  rather 
in  the  form  of  sayings  and  parables.  These  sayings  have  been 
preserved  by  his  nearest  disciples,  Besht  himself  having  left 
nothing  in  writing. 

Two  ideas  lie  at  the  bottom  of  the  "  Doctrine  of  Piety,"  or 
the  Hasidism,  of  Besht:  the  idea  of  Pantheism,  of  the  Om- 
nipresence of  God,  and  the  idea  of  the  interaction  of  the 
lower  and  upper  worlds.  The  former  may  be  approximately 
defined  by  the  following  utterances  of  Besht : 

It  is  necessary  for  man  constantly  to  bear  in  mind  that  God  is 
with  him  always  and  everywhere;  that  He  is,  so  to  speak,  the 
finest  kind  of  matter,  which  is  poured  out  everywhere;  that  He  is 
the  master  of  all  that  happens  in  the  Universe.    .    .    .    Let  man 


326  'I'HE  JEWS   IN   RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

realize  that  when  he  looks  at  things  material  he  bchcMs  in 
reality  the  Divine  Countenance,  which  is  present  everywhere. 
Keeping  this  in  mind,  man  will  find  it  possible  to  serve  the  Lord 
at  all  times,  even  in  trifles. 

The  second  fundamental  idea  is  borrowed  from  the  Cabala, 
and  signifies  that  there  is  a  constant  interaction  betAA'oen  the 
world  of  the  Divine  and  the  human  world,  so  that  not  only 
does  the  Deity  influence  human  actions,  but  the  latter  exert  a 
similar  influence  on  the  will  and  the  disposition  of  the  Deity. 

The  further  elements  of  the  Besht  doctrine  follow  logically 
from  these  premises.  Communion  with  God  is  and  must  be 
the  principal  endeavor  of  every  truly  religious  man.  This 
communion  may  be  attained  by  concentrating  one's  thoughts 
upon  God,  and  attributing  to  Him  all  happenings  in  life.  The 
essence  of  faith  lies  in  the  emotions,  not  in  the  intellect;  the 
more  profound  the  emotions,  the  nearer  man  is  to  God.  Prayer 
is  the  most  important  medium  through  which  man  can 
attain  communion  with  God.  To  render  this  communion  per- 
fect, prayer  must  be  ecstatic  and  fervent,  so  that  he  who  prays 
may,  as  it  were,  throw  off  his  material  film.  To  attain  to  this 
ecstatic  condition,  recourse  may  be  had  to  mechanical  con- 
trivances, such  as  violent  motions  of  the  body,  shouts,  shaking, 
and  so  on.  The  study  of  Jewish  religious  legislation  is  of 
secondary  importance,  and  is  useful  only  when  it  succeeds  in 
arousing  an  exalted  religious  disposition.  From  this  point 
of  view  the  reading  of  ethical  books  is  preferable  to  the  study 
of  Talmudic  casuistry  and  rabbinical  folios. 

Contrary  to  the  fundamental  precept  of  the  Practical  Cabala, 
Besht  insists  that  excessive  fasting,  the  killing  of  the  flesh, 
and  ascetic  exercises  in  general,  are  injurious  and  sinful,  and 
that  a  lively  and  cheerful  disposition  is  more  acceptable  to  God. 
What  is  most  important  in  religion  is  the  frame  of  mind  and 


THE  INNER  LIFE  DURING  THE  DECLINE  v;27 

not  the  external  ceremonies :  excessive  minuteness  of  religious 
observance  is  harmful.  The  pious,  or  Hasid,  should  serve  God 
not  only  by  observing  the  established  ceremonies,  but  also  in 
his  everyday  affairs  and  even  in  his  thoughts.  By  means  of 
constant  spiritual  communion  with  God,  man  may  attain  to 
the  gift  of  clairvoyance,  prophecy,  and  miracle-working.  The 
Eighteous,  or  Tzaddik,  is  he  who  lives  up  to  the  precepts  of 
Hasidism  in  the  highest  measure  attainable,  and  is  on  account 
of  it  nearer  and  dearer  to  God  than  any  one  else.  The 
function  of  the  Tzaddik  is  to  serve  as  mediator  between  God 
and  the  common  people.  The  Tzaddik  enables  man  to  attain 
to  perfect  purity  of  soul  and  to  every  earthly  and  heavenly 
blessing.  The  Tzaddik  ought  to  be  revered  and  looked  up  to 
as  God's  messenger  and  favorite. 

In  this  way  the  doctrine  preached  by  Besht  undermined  not 
only  scholastic  and  ceremonial  Eabbinism,  but  also  the  ascetic 
Cabala,  emphasizing  in  their  stead  the  principle  of  blind  faith 
in  Providence,  of  fervent  and  inspiring  prayer,  and,  last  but 
not  least,  the  dogma  of  attaining  salvation  through  the 
medium  of  the  miracle-working  Tzaddik.  The  last-men- 
tioned article  of  faith  was  of  immense  consequence  for  the 
further  development  of  Hasidism,  and  subsequently  over- 
shadowed the  cardinal  principles  of  the  new  movement. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  personality  of  Besht  as  the  first 
Tzaddik  impressed  the  people  far  more  than  his  doctrine, 
which  could  be  fully  grasped  only  by  his  nearest  associates 
and  disciples.  Among  these  the  following  were  particularly 
prominent:  Jacob  Joseph  Cohen,  who  occupied  the  post  of 
rabbi  successively  in  Shargorod,  iSTiemirov,  and  Polonnoye ; 
Baer  of  Mezherich,  a  Volhynian  preacher  and  Cabalist ;  Nah- 
man  of  Horodno,  Nahman  of  Kosovo,  Phineas  of  Koretz,  all  of 


228  THE  JEWS   IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

whom  frequently   visited  Besht  in  MedzhilK)zli.       Even   the 
former  Rahbi   of  Brody,   Gershon   Kutover,   who    had    once' 
looked    down    on    liis    brother-in-law    as    an    Am    ha-Aretz, 
acknowledged  his  religious  mission. 

About  1750,  Besht  sent  to  his  brother-in-law  Kutover, 
who  had  in  the  meantime  settled  in  the  Holy  Land,  a  kind  of 
prophetic  manifesto,  telling  of  his  miraculous  vision,  or  revela- 
tion. In  it  Besht  asserted  that  on  the  day  of  the  Jewish  New 
Year  his  soul  had  been  lifted  up  to  heaven,  where  he  beheld  the 
Messiah  and  many  souls  of  the  dead.  In  reply  to  the  petition 
of  Besht,  "  Let  me  know,  my  ^Master,  when  thou  wilt  appear 
on  earth,**  the  Messiah  said  : 

This  shall  be  a  sign  unto  thee:  when  thy  doctrine  shall  become 
known,  and  the  fountains  of  thy  wisdom  shall  be  poured  forth, 
when  all  other  men  shall  have  the  power  of  performing  the  same 
mysteries  as  thyself,  then  shall  disappear  all  the  hosts  of  impurity, 
and  the  time  of  great  favor  and  salvation  shall  arrive. 

Revelations  of  this  kind  were  greatly  in  vogue  at  the  time, 
and  had  a  profound  effect  upon  mystically  inclined  minds. 
The  notion  spread  that  Besht  was  in  contact  with  the  prophet 
Elijah,  and  that  his  "  teacher  "  was  the  Biblical  seer  Ahijah 
of  Shilo.  As  far  as  the  common  people  are  concerned,  they  be- 
lieved in  Besht  as  a  miracle-worker,  and  loved  him  as  a  re- 
ligious teacher  w^ho  made  no  distinction  between  the  edu- 
cated  and  the  ordinary  Jew.  The  scholars  and  Cabalists 
were  fascinated  by  his  wise  discourses  and  parables,  in  which 
the  most  abstract  tenets  of  the  Cabala  were  concretely 
illustrated,  reduced  to  popular  language,  and  applied  to  the 
experiences  of  everyday  life.  Besht's  circle  in  Medzhibozh 
grew  constantly  in  number.  Shortly  before  his  death,  Besht 
witnessed  the  agitation  conducted  by  the  Frankists  in  Podolia 


THE  INNER  LIFE  DURING  THE  DECLINE  229 

and  their  subsequent  wholesale  baptism.  The  Polish  rabbis 
rejoiced  in  the  conversion  of  the  sectarians  to  Catholicism, 
since  it  rid  the  Jewish  people  of  dangerous  heretics.  But 
when  Besht  learned  of  the  fact,  he  exclaimed :  "  I  heard  the 
Lord  cry  and  say :  As  long  as  the  diseased  limb  is  joined  to  the 
body,  there  is  hope  that  it  may  be  cured  in  time ;  but  when  it 
has  been  cut  off,  it  is  lost  forever."  There  is  reason  to  believe 
that  Besht  was  one  of  the  rabbis  who  had  been  invited  to 
participate  in  the  Frankist  disputation  in  Lemberg,  in  1759. 
In  the  spring  of  the  following  year,  Besht  breathed  his  last, 
surrounded  by  his  disciples, 

6.  The  Hasidic  Propaganda  and  the  Growth  of 
tzaddikism 

At  the  time  of  Besht's  death,  his  doctrine  had  gained  a 
considerable  number  of  adherents  in  Podolia,  Galicia,  and 
Volhynia,  who  assumed  the  name  Hasidim.  But  the  systematic 
propaganda  of  Hasidism  began  only  after  the  death  of  Besht, 
and  was  carried  on  by  his  successors  and  apostles.  His  first 
successor  was  the  preacher  Baer  of  Mezherich,  referred  to  pre- 
viously, under  whom  the  little  town  of  Mezherich  became  the 
headquarters  of  Hasidism  in  Volhynia,  just  as  Medzhibozh 
had  been  in  Podolia.  In  poiiit  of  originality  and  depth  of 
sentiment  Baer  was  vastly  inferior  to  his  master,  but  he  sur- 
passed him  in  erudition.  His  scholarship  insured  the  success 
of  the  Hasidic  propaganda  among  the  learned  class,  and  also 
enabled  him  to  become  one  of  the  main  exponents  of  the 
theory  of  Hasidism.^     In  the  course  of  twelve  years  (1760- 

*  An  exposition  of  his  doctrines  may  be  found  in  the  book  en- 
titled Maggicl  Debarav  le-Ya'kob  ["  Showing  His  Words  unto  Jacob  " 
— allusion  to  Ps.  cxlvii.  19],  also  called  Likkiite  Amarim,  "Collec- 
tion of  Sayings."    It  was  published  after  his  death,  in  1784. 


230  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

1772)  Baer  managed  to  surround  himself  with  a  large  number 
of  prominent  Talmudists,  who  had  become  enthusiastic  con- 
verts to  Hasidism ;  some  of  tliem  came  from  arch-rabbinical 
Lithuania  and  White  Russia.  Baer  developed  the  doctrine  of 
Besht,  laying  particular  stress  upon  the  principle  of  Tzad- 
dikism.  He  trained  a  staff  of  apostles,  who  eventually  became 
the  founders  of  Tzaddik  dynasties  in  various  parts  of  Poland 
and  Lithuania.  Tzaddikism  served  as  a  bait  for  the  common 
people,  who,  instead  of  a  rational  belief  in  certain  religious 
truths,  preferred  to  put  their  blind  faith  in  the  human  ex- 
ponents of  these  truths — in  the  Tzaddiks. 

The  same  tendency  characterized  the  activity  of  another 
apostle  of  Besht,  Jacob  Joseph  Cohen,  who  paid  for  his  de- 
votion to  Hasidism  by  having  to  endure  the  persecutions  of  his 
rabbinical  colleagues.  Having  lost  tlie  post  of  rabbi  in  Shar- 
gorod,  Cohen,  with  the  aid  of  Besht,  accepted  the  position  of 
preacher  in  Xiemirov,  and,  after  the  death  of  his  master, 
acted  as  preacher  in  Polonnoye.  Everywhere  he  was  zealously 
engaged  in  propagating  the  Hasidic  doctrine  by  means  of  the 
spoken  and  written  word.  Jacob  Joseph  Cohen  was  the  first  to 
attempt  a  literary  exposition  of  the  fundamental  principles  oi 
Hasidism.  In  1780  he  published  a  collection  of  sermons, 
under  the  title  Toldoth  Ya'koh  Yoseph^  reproducing  numerou:- 
sayings  which  he  had  heard  from  the  lips  of  Besht.  While 
exalting  the  importance  of  the  Tzaddiks,  who  were  solicitous 
about  the  salvation  of  the  common  people,  Jacob  Joseph  bit- 
terly assails  the  arrogant  Talmudists,  or  '*  pseudo-scholars,'"' 
whose  whole  religion  is  limited  to  book-learning,  and  whose 
attitude  towards  the  masses  is  one  of  contempt.  Jacob  Joseph's 

[^  "  History  of  Jacob  Joseph  " — a  clever  allusion  to  the  Hebrew 
text  of  Gen.  xxxvii.  2.] 


THE   INNER  LIFE  DURING  THE  DECLINE  33I 

lK)ok  laid  the  foundation  of  Hasidic  literature,  which  differs 
both  in  content  and  form  not  only  from  rabbinical  but  also 
from  the  earlier  Cabalistic  literature. 

In  the  last  decades  of  the  eighteenth  century,  Hasidism 
spread  with  incredible  rapidity  among  the  Jewish  masses  of 
Poland  and  partly  even  of  Lithuania.  Numerous  communities 
saw  the  rise  of  Hasidic  congregations  and  the  establishment  of 
separate  houses  of  prayer,  in  which  services,  characterized  by 
boundless  ecstasy,  violent  shouts,  and  gestures,  were  held  in 
accordance  with  Besht's  prescriptions.  The  Hasidim  adopted 
the  Cabalistic  prayer-book  of  Ari,  which  differed  from  the  ac- 
cepted liturgy  by  numerous  textual  alterations  and  transposi- 
tions. They  neglected  the  traditional  time  limit  for  morning 
j)rayers,  changed  the  ritual  of  slaughtering  animals,  and  some 
of  them  were  in  the  habit  of  dressing  themselves  in  white  on  the 
Sabbath.  They  were  fond  of  whiling  away  their  time  in  noisy 
assemblies,  and  frequently  indulged  in  merry  drinking  bouts, 
to  foster,  in  accordance  with  Besht's  precept,  "  a  cheerful  dis- 
position." 

The  most  characteristic  trait  of  the  Hasidim,  however,  was 
their  boundless  veneration  of  the  "  holy  "  Tzaddiks.  Though 
logically  the  outcome  of  Hasidism,  in  practice  Tzaddikisra 
was  in  many  cases  its  forerunner.  The  appearance  of  some 
miracle-working  Tzaddik  in  a  certain  neighborhood  frequently 
resulted  in  wholesale  conversions  to  Hasidism.  The  Tzaddik's 
home  was  overrun  by  crowds  of  men  and  women  who  in  their 
credulity  hoped  to  obtain  a  cure  for  diseases  or  a  remedy  for 
the  sterility  of  their  women,  or  who  asked  for  a  blessing,  for 
predictions  of  the  future,  or  sought  advice  in  practical  matters. 
If,  in  one  case  out  of  many,  the  Tzaddik  succeeded  in  helping 
one  of  his  clients,  or  if  one  of  his  guesses  or  predictions  proved 


232  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

to  be  correct,  his  fame  as  a  miracle-worker  was  firmly  estab- 
lished, and  the  population  of  the  neighborhood  was  sure  to  be 
won  over  to  Hasidism. 

The  number  of  Hasidic  partisans  grew  in  proportion  to  the 
number  of  Tzaddiks,  of  whom  there  were  a  great  many  in  the 
last  two  decades  of  the  eighteenth  century.  The  most  authori- 
tative Tzaddiks  came  from  the  circle  of  Baer  of  Mezherich. 
Every  one  of  them  either  laid  his  own  individual  impress  upon 
the  doctrine  preached  by  him,  or  endeavored  to  adapt  himself 
to  the  habits  of  the  population  of  his  district.  As  a  result,  the 
Hasidic  doctrine  branched  out  rapidly,  falling  into  different 
varieties.  The  principal  branches  of  Hasidism  were  two :  that 
of  Poland  and  Ukraina,  and  that  of  Lithuania  and  White 
Russia. 

The  former  was  represented  by  Elimelech  of  Lizno,  in 
Galicia,  Levi  Itzhok  of  Berdychev,  Nohum  of  Chernobyl,  and 
Borukh  of  Tulchyn,  a  grandson  of  Besht.  Elimelech  of  Lizno, 
who  died  in  1786,  carried  the  doctrine  of  practical  Tzaddikism 
to  its  radical  conclusions.  He  preached  that  the  first  duty 
of  the  Hasid  consists  in  reverence  for  the  Tzaddik.  The 
Tzaddik  is  "  a  middleman  between  Israel  and  God."  Through 
his  intercession  God  bestows  upon  the  faithful  all  earthly 
blessings — "life,  children,  and  sustenance"*;  if  the  Tzaddik 
wills  otherwise,  the  flow  of  blessings  is  stopped.  The  Hasid  is 
therefore  obliged  to  have  blind  faith  in  the  Tzaddik,  to  look 
upon  him  as  his  benefactor,  and  to  give  him  of  his  means.  The 
Tzaddik  should  be  supported  by  donations  in  cash  and  in  kind, 
so  that  he  may  devote  himself  wholly  to  the  service  of  God  and 
thereby  prove  a  blessing  to  mankind. 

*  Hayyc.  ione,  u-mezone  [allusion  to  a  well-known  Talmudic 
dictum;    Mo'ed  Katan  28"]. 


THE  INNER  LIFE  DURING  THE  DECLINE  233 

This  commercial  theoiy  of  an  exchange  of  services  accom- 
plished its  purpose.  The  people  brought  their  last  pennies 
to  the  Tzaddik,  and  the  Tzaddik  in  turn  was  indefatigable 
in  bestowing  blessings,  pouring  forth  divine  favors  upon  earth, 
healing  the  cripples,  curing  the  sterility  of  women,  and  so  on. 
The  profitable  calling  of  Tzaddik  became  hereditary,  passing 
from  father  to  son  and  grandson.  Everywhere  petty  "  dynas- 
ties" of  Tzaddiks  sprang  up,  which  multiplied  rapidly  and 
endeavored  to  wrest  the  supremacy  from  one  another.  Such 
was  the  fate  of  the  cult  of  the  Kighteous  taught  by  Besht, 
which  now  assumed  gross  materialistic  forms. 

It  is  fair  to  add,  however,  that  not  everywhere  did  Tzaddik- 
ism  sink  to  such  low  depths.  There  were  Tzaddiks  who  were 
idealists,  lovers  of  mankind,  and  saintly  men,  however  strange 
the  forms  in  which  these  virtues  often  manifested  themselves. 
One  of  these  men,  to  quote  one  instance,  was  Levi  Itzhok  of 
Berdychev,  who  in  his  youth  had  been  cruelly  persecuted  by 
the  Lithuanian  rabbis  for  his  devotion  to  Hasidism.  Towards 
the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century  he  settled  in  Berdychev  as 
Tzaddik,  and  became  tremendously  popular  in  his  new  calling 
on  account  of  his  saintly  life  and  his  fatherly  love  for  the  com- 
mon people.  Speaking  generally,  however,  the  Ukrainian, 
Podolian,  and  Galician  Tzaddiks  had  one  tendency  in  common, 
that  of  inculcating  in  their  followers  a  blind  faith  in  the  truths 
of  Hasidism  and  shunning  all  "  speculation  "  as  injurious  to 
religious  sentiment. 

The  development  of  Hasidism  in  Lithuania  and  White  Eus- 
sia  was  altogether  different.  Whereas  in  the  south  Hasidism 
captured  entire  communities  at  one  stroke,  meeting  with  feeble 
resistance  from  the  dry-as-dust  representatives  of  Rabbinism, 


234  THE  JEWS   IN  RUSSIA   AND  POLAND 

in  the  north  it  was  forced  to  engage  in  a  hitler  struggle  for 
existence  with  powerful  Babbinism  as  represented  by  the  Kahal 
organization.  At  the  same  time  it  received  a  special  coloring 
there.  The  Hasidism  of  Besht,  having  been  carried  to  the 
north  by  the  disciples  of  Baer  of  ]\Iezherich,  Aaron  of  Karlin, 
Mendel  of  Vitebsk,  and  Zalmau  of  Ladi,  could  not  help 
absorbing  many  elements  of  the  dominant  doctrine  of  Eabbin- 
ism.  The  principal  exponent  of  this  new  teaching  in  the 
North,  Zalman  Shneorsohn  '  (died  1813),  of  Lozno,  and  later 
of  Ladi,  both  in  the  Government  of  Moghilev,  succeeded  in 
creating  a  remarkable  system  of  thouglit,  which  may  well  be 
designated  as  "  rational  Hasidism."  He  summed  up  his 
theory  in  the  words :  "  Wisdom,  Understanding,  and  Klnowl- 
edge." ' 

While  in  the  main  adopting  the  doctrine  of  Besht,  Zalman 
injected  into  it  the  method  of  religious  and  philosophic  investi- 
gation. "  Speculation  "  in  matters  of  faith — within  certain 
limits,  of  course — was,  in  his  opinion,  not  only  permissible 
but  even  obligatory.  He  demanded  that  the  Tzaddik  be, 
not  a  miracle-worker,  but  a  religious  teacher.  He  purged 
Hasidism  of  numerous  vulgar  superstitions,  robbing  it  at  the 
same  time  of  the  childlike  ndiveU  which  characterized  the 
original  doctrine  of  Besht.  Zalman's  ovra  theory  was  adapted 
to  the  comparatively  high  intellectual  level  of  the  Jewish  popu- 
lation of  the  Northwest.  In  the  South  it  was  never  able  to 
gain  adherents. 

[*  His  full  name  was  Slineor  Zalman,  which  Is  used  by  the  author 
later  on.    Subsequently  he  assumed  the  family  name  Shneorsohn.] 

^  In  Hebrew,  Hokma,  Bina,  Da'ath,  abbreviated  to  HaBaD, 
from  which  the  White  Russian  Hasidim  received  the  nickname 
"  Habadniks." 


THE  INNER  LIFE  DURING  THE  DECLINE  235 

7.  Eabbinism,  Hasidism,  and  the  Forerunners  of 
Enlightenment 

Rabbinism  had  long  been  scenting  a  dangerous  enemy  in 
Hasidism.  The  principle  proclaimed  by  Besht,  that  man  is 
saved  by  faith  and  not  by  religious  knowledge,  was  in  violent 
contradiction  with  the  fundamental  dogma  of  Eabbinism, 
which  measured  the  religious  worth  of  a  man  by  the  extent 
of  his  Talmudic  learning.  The  rabbi  looked  upon  the  Tzaddik 
as  a  dangerous  rival,  as  a  new  type  of  popular  priest,  who, 
feeding  on  the  superstition  of  the  masses,  rapidly  gained 
their  confidence.  The  lower  Jewish  classes  abandoned  the 
uninspiring  Talmudist,  whose  subtleties  they  failed  to  compre- 
hend, and  flocked  to  the  miracle-working  Tzaddik,  who  offered 
them,  not  only  his  practical  advice,  but  also  his  blessing,  thus 
saving  soul  and  body  at  one  and  the  same  time.  However, 
completely  defeated  by  Hasidism  in  the  South,  Eabbinism  still 
reigned  supreme  in  the  North,  and  finally  declared  a  war  of 
extermination  against  its  rival. 

During  the  period  under  discussion,  in  the  latter  part  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  the  leader  of  the  Lithuanian  rabbis  was 
Elijah  of  Vilna  (1720-1797),  who  received  the  ancient,  high- 
sounding  title  of  Gaon.*  He  was  the  incarnation  of  that 
power  of  intellect  which  was  the  product  of  subtle  Talmudic 
reasoning.  Early  in  his  childhood  Elijah  displayed  phenome- 
nal ability.  At  the  age  of  six  he  managed  to  read  the  Talmudic 
text  without  the  aid  of  a  teacher.  At  the  age  of  ten  he 
participated  in  difficult  Talmudic  discussions,  amazing  old 
rabbis  by  his  erudition.  His  mind  rapidly  absorbed  everything 
that  came  within  its  range.  Elijah  was  familiar  with  the 
Cabala,  and  incidentally  picked  up  enough  of  mathematics, 

'  N'nan  [Hagro.  abbreviation  of  HaGaon  Rahhi  /:;(;<  =  o)lia]. 


236  THE  JEWS   IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

astronomy,  and  physics,  to  be  able  to  follow  cejtain  discussions 
in  the  Talmud.  He  lived  in  Vilna  as  a  recluse,  leading  the  life 
of  an  ascete  and  burying  himself  entirely  in  his  books.  He  took 
little  nourishment,  slept  two  hours  a  day,  rarely  conversed 
about  secular  affairs,  his  contact  with  the  outside  world  being 
practically  limited  to  the  Talmudic  lectures  which  he  delivered 
before  his  pupils. 

Elijah  avoided  the  method  of  pilpul,  which  was  meant  to 
exercise  the  mind  by  inventing  artificial  contradictions  in  the 
Talmudic  text  and  subsequently  removing  them.  Knowing 
by  heart  almost  the  entire  Tahnudic  and  rabbinic  literature, 
he  had  no  difficulty  in  solving  the  most  complicated  questions 
of  Jewish  law,  and,  guided  by  subtle  ci'itical  observations, 
occasionally  allowed  himself  to  emend  the  text  of  the  Tal- 
mud. Elijah  Gaon  wrote  commentaries  and  all  sorts  of 
"  annotations "  to  Biblical,  Talmudic,  and  Cabalistic  books, 
but  his  style  was,  as  a  rule,  careless,  consisting  of  hints,  refer- 
ences, and  abbreviations,  intelligible  only  to  the  learned  reader. 
In  his  spare  moments  he  occasionally  wrote  about  Hebrew  gram- 
mar and  mathematical  sciences.  Eabbinical  learning  was  his 
native  element,  embodying  for  him  the  whole  meaning  of 
religion.  In  questions  of  religious  ceremonialism  he  was  a 
rigorist,  adding  here  and  there  new  restrictions  to  the  multi- 
farious injunctions  of  the  Shulhan  Arukh.  He  was  the  idol 
of  all  the  learned  rabbis  of  Lithuania  and  other  countries, 
but  the  masses  understood  him  as  little  as  he  understood  them. 
A  spiritual  aristocrat,  he  was  bound  to  condemn  severely  the 
"  plebeian "  doctrine  of  Hasidism.  The  latter  offended  in 
him  equally  the  learned  Talmudist,  the  rigorous  ascete,  and 
the  strict  guardian  of  ceremonial  Judaism,  of  which  cer- 
tain minutiae  had  been  modified  by  the  Hasidim  after  their 
own  fashion. 


THE   INNER  LIFE  DURING  THE  DECLINE  237 

As  far  back  as  1T72,  wlieii  tlie  first  na>:i(lic  sociotios  were 
secretly  organized  in  Lithuania,  and  several  of  their  leaders 
were  discovered  in  Vilna,  the  rabbinical  Kahal  court  of  that, 
city  pronounced,  with  the  permission  of  Elijah  Gaon,  the 
herem  against  the  sectarians.  From  Vilna  circulars  were  sent 
out  to  the  rabbis  of  other  communities,  calling  upon  them  to 
wage  war  against  the  "godless  sect."  In  many  towns  of 
Lithuania  tlie  Hasidim  became  the  object  of  persecution.  The 
rabbis  of  Galicia,  having  been  forewarned  from  Vilna,  fol- 
lowed suit,  and  at  a  meeting  held  in  Brody,  during  the  local 
fair,  issued  a  most  rigorous  herem  against  every  Jew  following 
the  Hasidic  liturgy,  dressing  in  white  on  Saturdays  and 
holidays/  and  in  general  participating  in  the  conventicles  of 
the  Hasidim. 

We  have  already  had  occasion  ^  to  refer  to  the  work  of  the 
Hasidic  apostle  Jacob  Joseph  Cohen  (Toldoth  Ya'hoh  Yoseph), 
which  for  the  first  time  reproduced  the  sayings  of  Besht,  and, 
by  way  of  comment,  indulged  in  attacks  upon  the  scholastic 
"pseudo-wisdom"  of  the  rabbis.  Cohen's  work,  which  appeared 
in  1780,  once  more  stirred  the  rabbinical  w^orld.  From  Vilna 
the  signal  was  given  for  a  new  campaign  against  the  Hasidim. 
The  rabbis  of  Lithuania,  assembling  in  1781  at  the  fair  of 
Zelva,  in  the  Government  of  Grodno,  issued  appeals  to  all 
Jewish  communities,  demanding  the  severest  possible  penal- 
ties for  "  the  dishonorable  followers  of  Besht,  the  destroyer 
of  Israel."  All  orthodox  Jews  were  called  upon  to  ostracize  the 
Hasidim  socially,  to  regard  them  as  infidels,  to  shun  all  eon- 
tact  and  avoid  intermarriage  with  them,  and  to  refrain  from 

'  The  custom  of  wearing  white  garments  was  adopted,  for 
certain  mystical  considerations,  by  the  Tzaddiks  and  the  most 
pious  of  their  followers. 

'  See  p.  230. 


238  THE  JEWS   IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

burying  their  dead.  The  opponents  of  the  Hasidim  called 
themselves  Mithnagdim,  "  Protestants,"  and  persecuted  them 
everywhere  as  dangerous  schismatics. 

The  formation  of  important  Hasidic  societies  in  White 
Russia,  under  the  leadership  of  Zalman  Shneorsohn,  increased 
the  agitation  of  the  Mithnagdim,  At  the  rabbinical  confer- 
ences held  in  Moghilev  and  Shklov  severe  measures  were 
adopted  against  the  Hasidim,  and  their  leader  was  proclaimed 
a  heretic.  In  vain  did  Zalman  defend  himself,  and,  in  his 
epistles  to  the  rabbis,  demonstrate  his  Orthodoxy.  In  vain  did 
he  travel  to  Vilna  to  obtain  a  personal  interview  with  Elijah 
Gaon  and  remove  the  stain  of  heresy  from  himself  and  his  fol- 
lowers. The  stern  Gaon  refused  even  to  see  the  exponent  of 
heterodoxy.  At  the  very  end  of  the  eighteenth  century  the 
strife  of  parties  in  Russian  Jewry  became  more  and  more 
accentuated,  and  finally  led,  as  we  shall  see  later,*  to  the  inter- 
ference of  the  Russian  Government. 

While  warring  with  one  another,  Rabbinism  and  Hasidism 
found  a  point  of  contact  in  their  common  hatred  of  the  new 
Enlightenment,  which  proceeded  from  the  Mendelssohn  circle 
in  Berlin.  If  Rabbinism  opposed  secular  knowledge  actively, 
looking  upon  it  as  a  competitor  who  contested  its  own  spiritual 
monopoly,  Hasidism  opposed  it  passively,  with  its  whole  being, 
prompted  by  an  irresistible  leaning  towards  mental  drowsi- 
ness and  "  pious  fraud."  Hasidism  and  its  inseparable  com- 
panion Tzaddikism,  the  products  of  a  mystical  outlook  on  life, 
were  powerless  against  cold  logical  reasoning.  It  stands  to 
reason  that  the  Tzaddiks  were  even  more  hostile  towards 
secular  learning  than  the  rabbis.  True,  Rabbinism  had  im- 
mersed the  Jewish  mind  in  the  stagnant  waters  of  scholas- 

'  See  pp.  377  et  seq. 


THE  INNER  LIFE  DURING  THE  DECLINE  239 

ticism,  but  Hasidism,  in  its  further  development,  endeavored 
altogether  to  lull  rational  thinking  to  sleep,  and  to  cultivate, 
to  an  excessive  degree,  the  religious  imagination  at  its  expense. 
The  new  cultural  movement  which  had  arisen  among  the  Jews 
of  Germany  had  no  chance  of  penetrating  into  this  dark  realm, 
which  was  guarded  on  the  one  hand  by  scholasticism  and  on 
the  other  by  mysticism.  The  few  isolated  individuals  in  Polish 
Jewry  who  manifested  a  leaning  towards  secular  culture  were 
forced  to  go  abroad,  primarily  to  Berlin. 

One  of  these  rare  fugitives  from  tlie  realm  of  darkness  was 
Solomon  Maimon  (1754-1800).  He  was  born  the  son  of  a 
village  arendar  in  Lithuania,  near  Xesvizh,  in  the  Govern- 
ment of  Minsk,  where  he  received  a  Talmudic  education,  and 
where,  having  scarcely  reached  the  age  of  twelve,  he  was  mar- 
ried off  by  his  old-fashioned  parents.  However,  unlike  thou- 
sands of  other  Jewish  lads,  he  managed  to  escape  spiritual  death 
in  the  mire  of  everyday  life.  Endowed  with  a  searching  mind, 
Solomon  !Maimon  was  driven  constantly  onward  in  his  mental 
development.  From  the  Talmud  he  passed  to  the  Cabala,  in 
which  at  one  time  he  was  completely  absorbed.  From  the 
Cabala  he  made  a  sudden  leap  to  the  religious  philosophy  of 
Maimonides  and  other  medieval  Jewish  rationalists.  His 
youthful  intellect  was  eager  for  new  impressions,  and  these  his 
immediate  surroundings  failed  to  give  him.  In  1777  Maimon 
left  home  and  family,  and  went  to  Germany  to  acquire  secular 
culture.  He  found  himself  first  in  Konigsberg,  and  then  pro- 
ceeded to  Berlin,  Posen,  Hamburg,  and  Breslau,  enduring  all 
kinds  of  suffering,  and  tasting  to  the  full  the  bitterness  of  a 
wanderer's  life  in  a  strange  land.  In  Berlin  he  came  in  contact 
with  Mendelssohn  and  his  circle,  rapidly  acquired  a  knowledge 
16 


240  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

of  German  literature  and  science,  and  made  a  deep  study  of 
philosophy,  particularly  of  the  system  of  Kant. 

The  sudden  transition  from  rabbinic  scholasticism  to  the 
"  Critical  Philosophy  "  of  Germany,  and  from  the  primitive 
existence  of  a  Lithuanian  Jew  to  the  free  life  of  an  educated 
European,  destroyed  Maimon's  mental  equilibrium.  He  fell  a 
prey  to  skepticism  and  unbelief,  denying  the  foundations  of  all 
religion  and  morality,  and  led  a  disorderly  life,  which  made 
his  best  friends  turn  from  him.  In  his  philosophic  criticism, 
Maimon  went  much  further  than  Kant.  In  1790  he  published 
in  German  "  A  Tentative  Investigation  of  Transcendental 
Philosophy,"  and  this  book  was  followed  by  a  number  of 
writings  dealing  with  metaphysics  and  logic.  Kant,  on  read- 
ing his  first  book,  made  the  remark :  "  Xo  one  among  my 
opponents  has  grasped  the  essence  of  my  system  as  profoundly 
as  Maimon,  nor  are  there  altogether  many  men  endowed 
with  so  refined  and  penetrating  a  mind  in  questions  so 
abstract  and  complex."  In  1792  Solomon  ]\faimon  published 
his  "  Autobiography  "  (Lehensgeschichte) ,  a  remarkable  book, 
in  which  he  vividly  describes  the  conditions  of  life  and  the 
ideas  prevalent  among  Polit^li  Lithuanian  Jews  as  well  as  his 
own  sad  Odyssey.  The  Autobiography  made  a  profound  im- 
pression upon  educated  Christians,  among  others  on  Goethe 
and  Schiller.  The  last  years  of  his  life  Maimon  spent  in 
Silesia,  on  the  estate  of  his  friend  Count  Kalkreuth,  where 
he  continued  his  philosophic  studies.  He  died  in  1800,  and 
was  buried  in  Glogau.  During  the  last  years  of  his  life  Maimon 
was  completely  estranged  from  Judaism.  He  contributed  next 
to  nothing  to  the  enlightenment  of  his  fellow-Jews,  the  only 
work  written  by  him  in  Hebrew  being  an  uncompleted  com- 
mentary on  Maimouides'  "  Guide  of  the  Perplexed."    Having 


THE  INNER  LIFE  DURING   THE  DECLINE  241 

escaped  the  realm  of  darkness,  he  no  more  returned  thither. 
Nor  perhaps  was  he  able  to  do  so  without  risking  the  same  fate 
as  Uriel  Acosta. 

The  time  for  cultural  rejuvenation  had  not  yet  arrived  for 
the  Jews  of  Poland  and  Lithuania.  Least  of  all  could  such  a 
rejuvenation  have  been  stimulated  by  the  change  in  their 
external,  political  situation :  the  transfer  of  the  bulk  of  the 
Jewish  population  from  the  power  of  disintegrating  Poland 
to  that  of  Russia,  a  country  even  less  civilized  and  built  upon 
the  foundations  of  autocracy  and  serfdom. 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE   RUSSIAN   QUARANTINE   AGAINST   JEWS 
(TILL  1772) 

1.  The  Anti-Jewish  Attitude  of  Muscovy  during  the 
Sixteenth  and  Seventeenth  Centuries 

The  Empire  of  Muscovy,  shut  off  from  Western  Europe  by 
a  Chinese — or,  more  correctly,  Byzantine — wall,  maintained 
during  the  sixteenth  century  its  attitude  of  utmost  prejudice 
towards  the  Jews,  and  refused  to  admit  them  into  its  borders. 
This  prejudice  was  part  of  the  general  disfavor  with  which  the 
Russian  people  of  that  period,  imbued  as  it  was  with  the 
traditions  of  Tataric-Byzantine  culture,  looked  upon  foreigners 
or  "  infidels."  But  the  prejudice  against  the  Jews  was  fed, 
in  addition,  from  a  specific  source.  The  recollection  of  the 
"  Judaizing  heresy  "  which  had  struck  terror  to  the  hearts 
of  the  pious  Muscovites  at  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  and  the 
beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century  '  had  not  yet  died  out.  The 
Jews  were  regarded  as  dangerous  magicians  and  seducers, 
superstitious  rumors  ascribing  all  possible  crimes  to  them. 
The  ambassador  of  the  Muscovite  Grand  Duke,  Basil  III., 
at  Rome,  observed  in  1526  to  the  Italian  scholar  Paolo  Giovio : 
"  The  Muscovite  people  dread  no  one  more  than  the  Jews,  and 
do  not  admit  them  into  their  borders." 

Jewish  merchants  of  Poland  and  Lithuania  visited  occasion- 
ally, in  connection  with  their  business  affairs,  the  border  city 
Smolensk,  but  they  had  no  permanent  residence  there.  From 
time  to  time  they  would  carry  their  goods  even  into  the  capital, 

*  See  p.  36  and  p.  37. 


THE  RUSSIAN  QUARANTINE  AGAINST  JEWS        213 

Moscow,  although  such  daring  did  not  always  pass  unpunished. 
About  1545  the  goods  imported  by  Jewish  merchants  from 
Brest-Litovsk  to  Moscow  were  burned  there,  on  which  occasion 
the  Muscovite  ambassador  called  the  attention  of  the  Polish 
Government  to  the  fact  that  the  Jews  had  imported  forbidden 
merchandise  to  Russia,  though  they  had  not  even  the  right  to 
travel  thither.  In  1550  the  Polish  King  Sigismund  Augustus 
addressed  a  "charter  "  to  Tzar  Ivan  the  Terrible  (Ivan  IV.), 
demanding  the  admission  of  Lithuanian  Jews  into  Russia  for 
business  purposes,  by  virtue  of  the  former  commercial  treaties 
between  the  two  countries.  Ivan  IV.  rejected  this  demand  in 
resolute  terms : 

It  is  not  convenient  to  allow  Jews  to  come  with  their  goods  to 
Russia,  since  many  evils  result  from  them.  For  they  import 
poisonous  herbs  [medicines]  into  our  realm,  and  lead  astray  the 
Russians  from  Christianity.  Therefore  he,  the  [Polish]  King, 
should  no  more  write  about  these  Jews. 

Ivan  the  Terrible  soon  had  occasion  to  demonstrate  con- 
cretely that  he  was  not  inclined  to  tolerate  Jews  in  his  domains. 
When,  in  1563,  the  Russian  troops  occupied  the  Polish  border 
city  Polotzk,'  the  Tzar  gave  orders  to  have  all  local  Jews 
converted  to  the  Greek  Orthodox  faith,  and  those  who  refused 
baptism  drowned  in  the  Dvina.  His  attitude  towards  the  Poles 
was  more  indulgent.  He  contented  himself  in  their  case 
with  taking  them  captive  and  demolishing  their  churches. 
Fortunately  a  few  years  later,  in  1579,  Polotzk  was  restored  to 
Poland  through  the  bravery  of  Stephen  Batory,  the  protector 
of  the  Jews. 

[*  In  the  present  Russian  Government  of  Vitebsk,  to  be  distin- 
guished from  Plotzk,  in  Polish,  Plock.  the  capital  of  the  Govern- 
ment of  the  same  name  in  Russian  Poland,  on  the  right  bank  of  the 
Vistula.] 


244  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

These  primitive  forms  of  denominational  politics  continued 
for  a  long  time  to  prevail  in  Muscovy.  The  Jews  of  Poland 
and  Lithuania  managed,  though  illegally,  to  visit  the  capital 
in  the  interest  of  their  business.  With  the  influx  of  Poles  into 
Moscow  during  the  so-called  "  period  of  unrest,"  the  interreg- 
num preceding  the  establishment  of  the  Eomanov  dynasty  in 
1613,  a  goodly  number  of  Jews  penetrated  into  Eussia.  The 
Muscovites  became  alarmed,  and  their  apprehensions  found 
expression  in  IGIO,  when  the  noblemen  of  Moscow  were  con- 
ducting negotiations  with  Poland  looking  to  tlie  election  of 
the  Polish  Crown  Prince  Vladislav  to  the  Russian  tlirone. 
An  agreement  was  concluded,  consisting  of  twenty  clauses, 
setting  forth  the  conditions  on  which  the  noblemen  were  will- 
ing to  vote  for  Vladislav,  The  fourth  clause  of  this  agreement 
runs  as  follows : 

No  churches  or  temples  of  the  Latin  or  any  other  faith  shall 
be  allowed  in  Russia.  No  one  shall  be  induced  to  adopt  the 
Roman  or  any  other  religion,  and  the  Jews  shall  not  be  allowed 
to  enter  the  jNIuscovite  Empire  either  on  business  or  in  connec- 
tion with  any  other  affairs. 

In  these  circumstances  the  Jews  were  deprived  of  all 
opportunity  to  develop  commercial  life  in  the  reactionary 
Empire.  Forty  years  later  this  same  Empire  pushed  its  way 
into  the  territories  of  Poland  and  Lithuania,  which  were 
populated  by  Jews,  and  the  policy  of  Musco\-y  was  destined  to 
reveal  its  creative  genius  in  the  domain  of  the  Jewish  question. 

The  first  contact  of  the  Muscovite  Empire  with  large  Jewish 
masses  took  place  when  the  province  of  Little  Russia  was 
annexed  by  Tzar  Alexis  Michaelovich  in  1654.  When  the 
Russian  troops,  allied  with  the  Cossacks,  overran  White  Rus- 
sia, Lithuania,  and  the  Ukraina,  they  were  struck   by  the 


THE  RUSSIAN  QUARANTINE  AGAINST  JEWS        245 

undreamed-of  spectacle  of  cities  in  which  entire  quarters  were 
populated  by  Jews,  a  strange  people  about  which  the  unenlight- 
ened Muscovites  knew  nothing  except  that  once  upon  a  time 
they  had  crucified  Christ,  and  for  this  reason  were  not  allowed 
to  enter  pious,  Greek  Orthodox  Eussia.  Alexis  Michaelovich 
and  his  military  commanders  began  after  their  own  fashion 
to  play  the  masters  in  the  temporarily  occupied  Polish  prov- 
inces. In  Vilna  and  Moghilev  the  Jews  were  murdered,  and 
those  who  survived  were  expelled.  In  Vitebsk  the  Jews  were 
made  prisoners  of  war,  while  in  other  cities  they  were  assaulted 
and  plundered.^ 

As  a  result  the  Muscovite  Empire  soon  found  within  its 
precincts  a  strangely  composed  Jewish  population,  consisting 
of  prisoners  of  war,  who  had  been  carried  off  principally  from 
the  border  towns  of  the  Government  of  Moghilev,  and  had  been 
deported  to  the  central  provinces  of  Eussia,  and  in  some  cases 
even  as  far  as  Siberia.  By  the  Peace  of  Andrusovo,  concluded 
in  1667  between  Eussia  and  Poland,  the  prisoners  of  war  of 
both  countries  were  given  their  freedom,  but  the  captive  Jews 
were  allowed  to  remain  in  Muscovy.  These  Jews  formed  the 
nucleus  of  a  small  Jewish  colony  in  Moscow,  which  grew  up 
gradually,  and  in  which  occasionally  even  converts  were  to  be 
found.  It  seems  that  with  the  aid  of  these  "  legal "  Jewish 
residents  other  "  illegal  "  Jews,  from  the  neighboring  regions 
of  Lithuania  and  White  Eussia,  managed  to  penetrate  to 
Moscow.  A  few  Jewish  merchants,  particularly  those  trading 
in  cloth,  succeeded  in  obtaining  an  official  permit,  the  so-called 
"  red  ticket,"  to  visit  the  capital.  However,  in  1676  the  pro- 
hibition against  Jews  entering  Moscow  was  renewed.  Only  jn 
the  portion  of  the  TJkraina  which  had  been  annexed  by  Eussia, 

'  See  pp.  153  et  seq. 


246  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

in  the  provinces  of  Chernigov  and  Poltava,  and  a  part  of  the 
province  of  Kiev,  there  could  still  be  found  small  groups  of 
Jews  who  had  survived  the  Cossack  massacres  of  1648.  More- 
over, from  the  Polish  section  of  the  Ukraipa,  Jews  occasionally 
came  on  business  into  these  Cossack  districts,  notwithstanding 
the  fact  that,  according  to  Russian  law,  the  Jews  were  barred 
from  residing  within  the  borders  of  Little  Eussia. 

2.  The  Jews  under  Peter  I.  and  His  Successors 

This  treatment  of  the  Jews  did  not  improve  even  in  the 
new  Russia,  in  which  Peter  the  Great,  the  Tzar-Reformer,  "  had 
broken  through  a  window  into  Europe."  True,  Peter's  reforms 
effected  a  change  for  the  better  in  the  attitude  of  the  isolated, 
unenlightened  Empire  towards  foreigners,  but  this  change  did 
not  extend  to  the  Jews.  We  know  of  no  laws  enacted  during  his 
reign  which  might  illustrate  the  views  of  the  new  Government 
on  the  Jewish  question.  There  is  reason  to  believe  that  the 
Tzar,  in  allowing  the  former  enactments  against  the  admission 
of  Jews  into  Russia  to  remain  in  force,  took  into  account  the 
primitive  habits  and  prejudices  of  his  people.  A  contempo- 
rary witness  narrates  that,  in  1698,  during  Peter's  stay  in 
Holland,  the  Jews  of  Amsterdam  requested  the  burgomaster 
Witsen  to  petition  the  Tzar  concerning  the  admission  of  their 
coreligionists  into  Russia.  After  listening  to  the  convincing 
arguments  of  Witsen,  with  whom  he  was  on  a  very  friendly 
footing,  Peter  replied : 

My  dear  Witsen,  you  know  the  Jews,  and  you  know  their  char- 
acter and  habits;  you  also  know  the  Russians.  I  know  both,  and 
believe  me,  the  time  has  not  yet  come  to  unite  the  two  nationalities. 
Tell  the  Jews  that  I  am  obliged  to  them  for  their  proposition,  and 
that  I  realize  how  advantageous  their  services  would  be  to  me,  but 


THE  RUSSIAN  QUARANTINE  AGAINST  JEWS        247 

that  I  should  have  to  pity  them  were  they  to  live  in  the  midst  of 
the  Russians. 

Discounting  the  element  of  anecdote  in  this  story,  we  may 
reasonably  assume  that  Peter  did  not  think  it  entirely  harm- 
less for  the  Jewish  emigrants  to  settle  among  the  benighted 
Russian  masses,  which  had  been  accustomed  to  look  upon  the 
Jew  as  some  kind  of  sea-monster,  and  as  an  infidel  and  Christ- 
killer.  It  is  possible  that  Peter  was  prompted  by  similar  con- 
siderations when  he  refused  to  admit  the  Jews  into  the  central 
provinces  of  Russia. 

However,  from  another  source  we  learn  that  the  "  reformer  " 
of  Russia  was  not  free  from  anti-Jewish  prejudices,  though 
they  were  not  always  of  a  religious  nature. 

While  inviting  skilful  foreigners  from  all  over — says  the  Rus- 
sian historian  Solovyov — Peter  made  a  permanent  exception  but 
for  one  people — the  Jews.  "  I  prefer,"  he  was  wont  to  say,  "  to  see 
in  our  midst  nations  professing  Mohammedanism  and  paganism 
rather  than  Jews.  They  are  rogues  and  cheats.  It  is  my  endeavor 
to  eradicate  evil  and  not  to  multiply  it.  They  shall  not  be  allowed 
either  to  live  or  to  trade  in  Russia,  whatever  efforts  they  may 
make,  and  however  much  they  may  try  to  bribe  those  near  me." 

Of  course,  only  a  goodly  dose  of  anti-Semitic  bias  could 
prompt  a  view  which  regards  in  this  light  the  economic  activity 
of  the  Jews  among  the  Russian  merchants,  those  same  mer- 
chants who  had  of  yore  given  expression  to  their  commercial 
principles  in  the  well-known  Russian  dictum,  "  If  you  don't 
cheat,  you  don't  sell." 

It  is  possible  that  Peter  was  not  unfamiliar  with  anti-Jewish 
prejudices  of  a  more  objectionable  kind.  In  1702  reports  were 
received  in  Moscow  from  Little  Russia,  that  in  the  town  of 
Gorodnya,  near  Chernigov,  "  the  Jews  had  tortured  a  Christian 
to  death,  and  had  sent  his  blood  to  a  number  of  Jews  in 


248  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

Little  Russian  towns."  The  descendants  of  Khmelnitzki  had 
evidently  succeeded  in  importing  into  Eussia  what  was  at  that 
time  a  fashionable  article  in  Poland,  the  charge  of  ritual  mur- 
der, and  these  obscure  rumors  may  have  affected  injuriously 
the  attitude  of  the  Russian  Tzar  towards  the  Jews. 

On  the  other  hand,  we  are  informed  that,  during  the  Russo- 
Swedish  War,  when  the  Russian  army  was  operating  on  the 
Polish  border  territory,  populated  by  Jews,  Peter  the  Great 
refrained  from  repeating  the  pogrom  experiments  of  his 
father,  Alexis  Michaelovich.  In  August,  1708,  shortly  before 
the  celebrated  battle  at  Lesnaya,  in  White  Russia,  he  checked 
a  military  riot  against  the  Jews  which  had  been  started  in 
Mstislavl.  A  brief  Hebrew  entry  in  the  local  Kahal  journal, 
or  PinJces,  runs  as  follows : 

On  the  twenty-eighth  of  Elul,  in  the  year  5468,  there  came  the 
Csesar,  who  is  called  the  Tzar  of  Muscovy,  by  the  name  of  Peter, 
the  son  of  Alexis,  with  his  whole  suite,  an  immense,  numberless 
host.  Robbers  and  murderers  from  among  his  people  fell  upon  us, 
without  his  knowledge,  and  it  almost  came  to  bloodshed.  And  if 
the  Lord  Almighty  had  not  put  it  into  the  heart  of  the  Tzar  to 
enter  our  synagogue  in  his  own  person,  blood  would  certainly  have 
been  shed.  It  was  only  with  the  help  of  God  that  the  Tzar  saved 
us,  and  took  revenge  for  us,  by  giving  orders  that  thirteen  men 
from  among  them  [the  rioters]  be  immediately  hanged,  and  the 
land  became  quiet. 

During  the  last  years  of  his  reign,  Peter  began  to  admit 
Jewish  financial  agents  to  his  new  capital,  St.  Petersburg. 
One  of  the  most  energetic  financial  agents  at  that  time  was 
the  "  court  Jew  "  Lipman  Levy,  a  banker  from  Courland,  who 
attained  to  particular  prominence  under  Peter's  successors. 

Under  the  immediate  successors  of  Peter  the  Great  the 
"  defensive "  policy  towards  the  Jews  gradually  became  an 


THE  RUSSIAN  QUARANTINE  AGAINST  JEWS         249 

"  offensive  "  one.  The  magnates  at  the  Russian  court,  who 
dominated  Russia  under  the  label  of  "  The  Supreme  Secret 
Council,"  called  attention  to  the  unnecessary  proximity  of  the 
Jewish  colony  in  Smolensk  to  the  center  of  the  Empire.  The 
district  of  Smolensk  bordering  on  Poland  harbored  a  group 
of  White  Russian  Jews,  who  earned  a  livelihood  by  a  trade 
profitable  at  tliat  time,  the  lease  of  excise  and  customs  duties. 
One  of  these  big  tax-farmers,  a  certain  Borukh  Leibov  (son  of 
Leib),  even  had  the  courage  to  build  a  synagogue  for  the 
few  Jews  of  the  village  of  Zverovich.  This  aroused  the 
ire  of  the  local  Greek  Ortliodox  priest,  who  in  his  naivete 
was  convinced  that  the  establishment  of  a  synagogue  would 
result  in  diverting  his  flock  from  the  Church  and  con- 
verting it  to  Judaism.  The  inhabitants  began  to  bombard  St. 
Petersburg  with  their  protests,  the  elders  of  the  Holy  Synod 
became  alarmed,  the  specter  of  the  " Judaizing  heresy"  once 
more  flitted  across  their  vision,  and,  as  a  result,  Empress 
Catherine  I.  issued,  in  March,  1727,  an  ukase '  through  the 
Supreme  Secret  Council,  that  Borukh  and  his  associates  be 
removed  from  their  office  in  connection  with  the  excise  and 
customs  duties,  and  "  be  deported  immediately  from  Russia 
beyond  the  border." 

A  month  later  another  even  stricter  ukase  was  promulgated 
by  the  Empress  through  the  Supreme  Secret  Council,  which  af- 
fected all  Jews  in  the  border  provinces,  particularly  those  resid- 
ing in  Little  Russia.  The  ukase  decreed  that  "  the  Jews,  both 
of  the  male  and  the  female  sex,  who  have  settled  in  the  Ukraina 
and  in  other  Russian  cities,  be  deported  immediately  from 

[*  Pronounced  ookaz,  with  the  accent  on  the  last  syllable.  The 
original  meaning  of  the  word  is  "  indication,"  "  instruction."  It  is 
applied  to  orders  issued  by  the  Tzar  himself  or,  in  the  name  of 
the  Tzar,  by  the  Senate.] 


250  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

llussia  beyond  the  border,  and  in  no  circumstances  be  admitted 
into  Russia,  of  which  fact  they  sliall  in  all  places  be  strictly 
forewarned."  The  exiles  were  forbidden  to  carry  gold  and 
silver  coins  abroad,  into  the  Polish  dominions.  They  were 
ordered  to  exchange  them  for  copper  money  prior  to  their 
expulsion.  This  ukase  was  a  gross  violation  not  only  of  the 
ancient  rights  of  the  Jews  who  had  been  left  in  Little  Russia 
after  its  annexation  by  Muscovy,  but  also  of  the  autonomy 
of  the  province  and  its  elective  authorities,  the  hetmans,  to 
whom  the  right  of  initiative  belonged  in  such  cases. 

The  arbitrariness  of  the  central  Government  called  forth  the 
protest  of  the  Little  Russian  Cossacks,  who  were  otherwise  far 
from  friendly  to  the  Jews.  In  the  name  of  "  the  Zaporozhian 
army  on  both  sides  of  the  Dnieper  " '  Hetman  Daniel  Apostol 
addressed  a  petition  to  St.  Petersburg,  pleading  for  the  ad- 
mission of  traveling  Jewish  salesmen  to  the  Little  Russian 
fairs,  in  view  of  their  commercial  usefulness.  A  reply  to 
this  petition  may  be  found  in  an  ukase  which  the  Supreme 
Secret  Council  issued  in  1728,  in  the  name  of  Emperor 
Peter  II.,  the  latter  still  being  a  minor.  One  of  its  clauses 
runs  thus : 

The  Jews  are  permitted  to  visit  temporarily  the  fairs  of  Little 
Russia  for  commercial  purposes,  but  they  are  only  allowed  to  sell 
their  goods  wholesale,  and  not  retail,  by  ells  and  in  pounds.  The 
money  taken  in  from  the  sale  of  these  goods  shall  be  used  to  buy 
other  goods.  In  no  circumstances  shall  they  be  allowed  to  carry 
gold  and  silver  money  from  Little  Russia  abroad.  .  .  .  The  [per- 
manent] residence  of  the  Jews  in  Little  Russia  is  forbidden  by 
virtue  of  the  ukase  of  the  previous  year,  1727. 


^  Little  Russia  possessed  at  that  time  its  own  military  organiza- 
tion, consisting  of  regiments  and  "  hundreds,"  under  the  command 
of  native  officers.  At  the  head  of  the  organization  stood  the 
commander-in-chief,  called  hetman  fsee  p.  143,  n.  1]. 


THE  RUSSIAN  QUARANTINE  AGAINST  JEWS         251 

In  this  way  the  Jews  who  had  been  illegally  depoi-ted  were 
now  "  graciously  "  granted  the  right  of  temporary  visits  to  the 
fairs.  Moreover,  even  this  right  was  hedged  about  by  severe 
restrictions,  such  as  the  prohibition  of  retail  business,  and  the 
compulsion  of  leaving  in  the  country  the  money  taken  in  for 
their  goods,  for  the  purpose  of  equalizing  imports  and  exports. 

In  1731,  this  act  of  "  grace  "  was  extended  to  the  Govern- 
ment of  Smolensk,  and  three  years  later  another  concession 
was  wrested  from  the  authorities.  The  representatives  of  the 
"  Border  Province  of  Sloboda,"  the  present  Government  of 
Kharkov,  petitioned  the  Eussian  ruler  to  grant  permission  to 
tlie  Jews  visiting  the  fairs  to  sell  their  goods  not  only  wholesale 
but  also  retail,  "  by  ells  and  in  pounds,"  in  view  of  the  fact 
that  "in  the  Sloboda  regiments  there  are  few  business  men, 
and  their  trade  is  unsatisfactory."  Empress  Anna  complied 
with  the  request  in  1774.  In  the  same  year  the  privilege  con- 
cerning the  retail  trade  of  Jews  at  the  fairs  was  extended  to 
the  whole  of  Little  Eussia,  in  compliance  with  a  petition  of  its 
Christian  inhabitants. 

But  this  avalanche  of  "  favors  "  and  "  privileges  " — the 
partial  restoration  of  rights  which  had  been  grossly  trampled 
upon — suddenly  stopped,  and  was  followed  by  a  series  of  cruel 
repressions.  The  change  was  prompted  by  the  Muscovite  fear 
of  Jews,  the  traditional  dread  felt  by  the  Eussian  people  of  the 
specter  of  "  Jewish  seduction."  An  occurrence  had  taken 
place  which  was  enough  to  strike  terror  to  the  hearts  of 
people  with  old  Muscovite  notions.  The  above-mentioned  tax- 
farmer  of  Smolensk,  Borukh  Leibov,  who,  even  after  his  expul- 
sion, continued  to  cross  the  forbidden  Polish-Eussian  frontier, 
had  occasion,  during  his  stay  in  Moscow,  to  come  in  close 
contact  with  Alexander  Voznitzin,  a  retired  captain  of  the 


252  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

navy,  and  "seduced  him."  Vozuitzin,  who  was  wont  to 
speculate  about  religious  matters,  studied  the  Bible  under  the 
guidance  of  his  Jewish  friend,  and  his  eyes  were  opened.  He 
realized  that  the  Biblical  doctrine  of  one  God  was  incompatible 
with  the  dogmas  of  the  Greek  Church  and  with  the  cult  of 
ikons,  in  which  he  had  been  brought  up.  Voznitzin  became 
convinced  of  the  truth  of  Judaism,  and,  having  made  up  his 
mind  to  embrace  the  Jewish  religion,  he  decided  to  brave  the 
difficulties  and  dangers  which  such  a  step  implied.  He  went  to 
the  little  town  of  Dubrovna,  in  the  Government  of  Moghilev, 
near  Smolensk,  where  the  son  of  Borukh  Leibov  resided,  to 
undergo  there  the  ceremony  of  circumcision  and  accept  the 
principles  and  practices  of  Judaism.  Voznitzin's  conversion 
became  known,  and  the  Captain,  together  with  his  teacher 
Borukh,  were  brought  to  justice.  They  were  conveyed  to  St. 
Petersburg,  and  turned  over  to  the  awe-inspiring  "  Chancellery 
for  Secret  Inquisitorial  Affairs." 

The  accused  were  put  on  the  rack  and  confessed  their 
"  crimes."  Voznitzin  admitted  having  embraced  "  the  Jewish 
law,"  and  having  uttered  "blasphemous  words  against  the 
Holy  Church,"  while  Borukh  Leibov  owned  that  he  had 
"  seduced  "  Voznitzin  from  the  path  of  Greek  Orthodoxy.  In 
addition,  Borukh  was  accused  of  having,  "  together  with  other 
Jews,"  predisposed  the  common  people  in  Smolensk  in  favor 
of  the  Jewish  religion,  and  of  having  insulted,  by  word  and 
deed,  the  local  Russian  Pope  Abramius,  in  connection  with 
the  establishment  of  a  Jewish  synagogue  in  the  village  of 
Zverovich.  The  latter  crimes,  however,  were  not  investigated 
further  in  view  of  the  fact  that  the  conversion  of  Voznitzin 
was  sufficient  to  inflict  the  death  penalty  on  Borukh.  The 
Inquisitorial  Court  hastened  to  announce  its  verdict,  basing 


THE  RUSSIAN  QUARANTINE  AGAINST  JEWS         053 

it  upon  the  "  statute  "  of  Tzar  Alexis  Michaelovicli.  The 
report  of  the  Senate  elicited  in  1738  an  Imperial  resolution,' 
decreeing  that  "  both  of  them  [Voznitzin  and  Borukh]  shall 
be  executed  and  burned,  in  order  that  other  ignorant  and 
godless  people,  witnessing  this,  shall  not  turn  away  from  the 
Christian  law,  and  such  seducers  as  the  above-mentioned  Jew 
Borukh  shall  not  dare  to  lead  them  astray  from  the  Christian 
law  and  convert  them  to  their  own  laws."  The  auto-da-fe 
took  place  in  St.  Petersburg,  on  a  public  square,  in  the  presence 
of  a  large  crowd  of  spectators,  on  July  15,  1738. 

This  one  isolated  incident  was  sufficient  to  rekindle  in  the 
Government  circles  of  St.  Petersburg  the  inveterate  Mus- 
covite hatred  against  "unbaptized  Jews"  and  to  justify 
further  violence  against  them.  It  had  come  to  the  knowledge 
of  the  authorities  that,  contrary  to  the  ukase  of  1727,  numer- 
ous Jews  were  still  residing  in  Little  Eussia,  being  employed 
on  the  estates  of  the  Eussian  landowners  as  arendars  and  inn- 
keepers. It  had  also  been  ascertained  that  the  Jews  who  came 
from  the  Polish  part  of  the  Ukraina  to  visit  the  fairs  in  many 
cases  settled  permanently  in  Little  Eussia.  The  Government 
found  such  a  state  of  affairs  unendurable.  In  1739  the  Senate 
decreed  the  expulsion  of  the  Jews  from  Little  Eussia,  whither 
in  recent  years  they  had  penetrated  "  from  the  other  side  of  the 
Dnieper."  In  reply  to  this  Senatorial  rescript,  the  Military 
Chancellery  of  Little  Eussia  reported  that  an  immediate  expul- 
sion of  the  Jews  was  fraught  with  danger,  on  account  of  the 
war  with  Turkey,  which  was  going  on  at  that  time,  "  since  their 
present  expulsion  might  be  accompanied  by  spying."  The 
Cabinet  of  Ministers,  acting  upon  the  representation  of  the 

[^  The  term  "  resolution  "  (in  Russian,  resolutzia)  is  applied  to 
a  decision  written  by  the  Tzar  in  his  own  hand  on  the  margin  of 
the  reports  submitted  to  him.] 


254  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

Senate,  passed  the  resolution,  that  "  the  expulsioi.  of  the  Jews 
shall  be  postponed  until  the  termination  of  the  present  Turk- 
ish War."  When  the  war  was  over,  Empress  Anna  issued  an 
ukase,  in  1740,  ordering  the  execution  of  the  postponed  expul- 
sion. The  number  of  Jews  liable  to  expulsion  was  found  to  be 
293  of  the  male  sex  and  281  of  the  female  sex,  who  resided 
on  130  manorial  estates,  altogether  a  handful  of  573  Jewish 
souls,  who  had  obtained  shelter  on  the  outskirts  of  Russia. 

3.  Elizabeth  Petrovna  and  the  First  Years  of 
Catherine  II. 

The  policy  of  religious  intolerance  was  practiced  assiduously 
during  the  reign  of  Elizabeth  Petrovna  (1741-1761) .  During 
the  reign  of  this  Empress,  who  divided  her  time  between 
church  services  and  court-balls,  the  persecutions  of  the  adher- 
ents of  other  faiths  were  intensified.  By  order  of  the  Holy 
Synod  and  the  Senate,  Greek  Orthodoxy  began  to  be  dissemin- 
ated among  the  pagan  nationalities  of  the  East,  while  those  of 
them  who,  under  the  influence  of  the  Tatars,  had  embraced 
Mohammedanism,  were  subjected  to  fines  unless  they  adopted 
the  religion  of  the  state.  In  the  hope  of  suppressing  the 
Mohammedan  propaganda,  orders  were  given  to  demolish  the 
mosques  in  many  villages  of  the  Governments  of  Kazan  and 
Astrakhan.  The  destruction  of  the  mosques  was  stopped  only 
by  the  fear  of  Turkish  reprisals,  "in  order  that  this  rumor 
shall  not  reach  those  countries  in  which  adherents  of  the 
Greek  Orthodox  persuasion  live  in  the  midst  of  Mohammedans, 
and  that  the  churches  existing  there  shall  not  suffer  oppres- 
sion." 

The  Jews  living  in  the  border  provinces  were  subjected  to 
similar  treatment:  they  were  expelled  with  one  hand  and 


THE  RUSSIAN  QUARANTINE  AGAINST  JEWS        255 

pushed  into  the  doors  of  the  church  with  the  other.  Towards 
the  end  of  1741,  Elizabeth  Petrovna  issued  a  remarkable  ukase. 
Referring  to  the  decree  of  1737  concerning  the  expulsion  of 
Jews,  the  Empress  states  that  "  it  has  now  come  to  our  knowl- 
edge that  some  Jews  in  our  Empire,  and  particularly  in 
Little  Russia,  continue  to  live  there  under  all  kinds  of  pre- 
tence, being  engaged  in  business  or  in  keeping  inns  and  taverns, 
from  which  circumstance  no  benefit  of  any  kind,  but,  coming 
from  such  haters  of  the  name  of  our  Savior  Christ,  only 
extreme  injury,  can  accrue  to  our  faithful  subjects."  Hence 
the  Empress  "  most  graciously  "  commands  that 

from  our  whole  Empire,  both  from  the  Great  Russian  and  Little 
Russian  cities,  villages,  and  hamlets,  all  Jews  of  the  male  and 
female  sex,  of  whatever  calling  and  dignity  they  may  be,  shall,  at 
the  publication  of  this  our  ukase,  be  immediately  deported  with  all 
their  property  abroad,  and  shall  henceforward,  under  no  pretext, 
be  admitted  into  our  Empire  for  any  purpose;  unless  they  shall 
be  willing  to  accept  the  Christian  religion  of  the  Greek  per- 
suasion. Such  [Jews],  having  been  baptized,  shall  be  allowed  to 
live  in  our  Empire,  but  they  shall  not  be  permitted  to  go  outside 
the  country. 

The  ukase  was  to  be  printed  and  promulgated  in  the  whole 
Empire,  so  as  to  gain  wide  circulation  among  the  people  and  to 
inculcate  in  the  Russian  masses  the  proper  sentiments  towards 
"  the  haters  of  the  name  of  our  Savior  Christ." 

However,  the  Empress  and  her  exalted  prompters  calculated 
wrongly.  The  cruel  expulsion  decree  did  not  draw  a  single 
Jew  into  the  fold  of  the  Greek  Orthodox  Church,  while  the 
reason  given  in  the  ukase  for  the  expulsion,  "  the  extreme 
injury"  inflicted  by  the  enemies  of  Christ  "upon  our  faithful 
subjects,"  failed  to  carry  conviction  to  the  latter.  The  ukase 
had  been  designed  in  particular  to  "  benefit "  the  inhabit- 
17 


25G  THE  JEWS   IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

ants  of  the  two  border  provinces  of  Little  Russia  and  Livonia 
by  eliminating  the  Jews  from  their  midst.  These  inhabitants, 
however,  speaking  through  their  local  representatives,  declared 
that  such  "beneficence"  would  only  result  in  ruining  them. 
From  Little  Eussia  the  Greek  contractors  of  the  customs  duties 
complained  to  the  Senate  that  the  repressions  against  the 
Jews,  which  hampered  their  commercial  visits  to  Poland,  had 
caused  great  losses  to  the  state  revenues  by  lowering  the  income 
from  imported  goods,  that  a  sudden  expulsion  of  Jews,  who 
were  bound  up  with  the  Christian  merchants  by  business  inter- 
ests and  monetary  obligations,  would  ruin  both  sides,  and  that 
it  was  therefore  necessary  to  allow  the  Jews  to  retain  their 
former  right  of  free  admission  into  Little  Russia  for  business 
purposes. 

Even  more  energetic  representations  were  sent  to  the  Senate 
from  the  Baltic  province  of  Livonia.  The  gubernatorial  ad- 
ministration of  the  province  and  the  magistracy  of  the  city 
of  Riga  stated  that,  in  accordance  with  the  promulgated  ukase, 
the  Jews  living  in  the  suburb  of  Riga  and  in  the  surrounding 
district  had  been  ordered  to  leave  within  six  weeks,  but  that 
this  expulsion  was  bound  to  cause  great  injury  to  the  exchequer 
and  to  spell  ruin  for  the  whole  mercantile  class.  For  the 
Polish  pans  and  merchants,  who  had  their  Jewish  brokers  in 
Riga,  would  stop  buying  their  goods  there,  and  would  prefer  to 
import  them,  with  the  aid  of  their  expelled  Jewish  middlemen, 
from  Germany,  so  that  "  trade  in  Riga  would  fall  off,  and 
commerce  might  be  destroyed  entirely,"  the  Russian  merchants 
finding  themselves  unable  to  secure  customers  for  "  the  goods 
imported  by  sea."  The  Livonians  therefore  pleaded  to  grant 
the  Jews  free  admission  into  Riga  for  carrying  on  business, 
though  it  be  only  in  the  capacity  of  temporary  residents. 


THE  RUSSIAN  QUARANTINE  AGAINST  JEWS         057 

Impressed  by  these  representations,  the  Senate  submitted  a 
report  to  the  Empress,  in  which  it  endeavored  to  convince  her 
that  for  the  sake  of  "  promoting  commerce,"  increasing  the 
revenues  of  the  exchequer,  and  guarding  the  interests  of  the 
Christian  population  in  the  "  border  localities,"  it  was  neces- 
sary to  comply  with  the  petitions  of  the  Ukrainians  and 
Livouians  and  grant  the  Jews  free  admission  to  both  prov- 
inces and  to  other  localities  on  the  frontier,  so  that  they  may 
carry  on  temporary  business  during  the  time  of  the  fairs,  this 
privilege  having  been  exercised  by  them  in  Little  Eussia  since 
1738,  by  virtue  of  earlier  Imperial  decrees.  Elizabeth  Petrovna 
read  these  convincing  arguments  of  the  Senate,  but,  blinded  by 
religious  fanaticism,  refused  to  pay  attention  to  them.  On  the 
reports  submitted  by  the  Senate,  she  put  down,  in  December, 
1743,  the  following  laconic  resolution':  "From  the  enemies 
of  Christ  I  desire  neither  gain  nor  profit." 

The  Senate  could  do  nothing  but  submit  to  the  despotic 
will  of  the  Empress.  A  month  later,  in  January,  174-i,  an  ukase 
was  issued,  demanding  that  immediate  steps  be  taken  to  detect 
the  Jews  in  Little  Russia,  Livonia,  and  other  places,  and  expel 
all  except  those  who  were  willing  to  be  baptized. 

Henceforward — the  Senatorial  decree  runs — the  above  Jews 
shall  not  by  any  means,  under  any  conditions,  and  for  any  purpose 
whatsoever,  be  admitted  into  Russia,  though  it  be  for  the  fairs 
or  for  a  short  time  only;  nor  shall  any  representations  concerning 
their  admission  be  further  addressed  to  the  Senate,  and  the  Senate 
shall  be  duly  informed  when  all  the  above  [Jews]  shall  have  been 
expelled. 

In  this  manner  Elizabeth  Petrovna  cleared  these  provinces 
of  their  Jewish  population,  whore — for  better  or  for  worse — it 

V  See  p.  253,  n.  1.] 


258  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

had  lived  long  before  their  annexation  by  Eussia.  A  con- 
temporary historian  calculates  that  up  to  his  time  (1753) 
some  35,000  Jews  had  been  banished  from  Russia. 

The  fanatical  Empress  searched  with  the  vigilance  of  an 
inquisitor  for  the  slightest  trace  of  Judaism  in  her  Empire. 
Since  1731  there  had  lived  in  St.  Petersburg  a  learned  phy- 
sician, by  the  name  of  Antonio  Sanchez,  evidently  a  Sephardic 
Marano,  who  professed  Judaism  in  secret.  Originally  invited 
from  Holland,  Sanchez  occupied  in  St.  Petersburg  the  post 
of  body-physician  at  the  courts  of  Anna  Johannovna  and  her 
successors,  and  he  was  at  the  same  time  in  charge  of  the  med- 
ical department  of  the  army.  He  subsequently  became  a 
member  of  the  Academy  of  Sciences,  and  wrote  a  number  of 
medical  works,  which  drew  the  attention  of  the  scientific 
world  to  him.  In  1749  Sanchez  was  suddenly  di>;niissed  from 
the  Academy  of  Sciences,  and  compelled  to  transfer  his  abode 
to  Paris.  It  seems  that  Empress  Elizabeth  had  foimd  out 
the  secret  "  crime  "  of  her  body-physician,  which  was  none 
other  than  his  loyalty  to  Judaism.  "  As  far  as  I  am  aware  " — 
the  president  of  the  Academy,  Eazumovski,  wrote  to  Sanchez — 
"  you  have  not  been  guilty  of  any  wrong-doing  against  her 
Imperial  Majesty  or  against  any  of  her  interests.  But  she 
finds  it  contrary  to  her  conscience  to  tolerate  in  the  Academy 
a  man  who  has  deserted  the  banner  of  Christ,  and  has  joined 
the  ranks  of  those  who  fight  under  the  banner  of  Moses  and 
the  Old  Testament  prophets."  When  the  famous  mathema- 
tician Euler  heard  of  Sanchez'  expulsion,  he  wrote :  "  I  doubt 
whether  amazing  actions  of  this  kind  will  contribute  towards 
the  reputation  of  the  Russian  Academy  of  Sciences." 

There  was  no  one  perhaps  in  the  contemporary  Government 
circles  of  Russia  who  was  so  ready  to  condemn  this  malicious 


THE  RUSSIAN  QUARANTINE  AGAINST  JEWS         259 

policy,  inspired  by  Byzantine  clericalism,  as  that  cultured 
"  Westerner,"  Empress  Catherine  II.  (1762-1796).  Neverthe- 
less in  the  first  years  of  her  reign  she  found  herself  unable  to 
change  a  policy  which  had  already  been  hallowed  by  tradi- 
tion, and  was  regarded  as  "national"'  and  truly  Eu.ssian. 
Catherine  II.,  in  endeavoring  to  justify  the  dethronement  of 
her  husband,  the  Prussophil  Peter  III.,  was  bound,  in  the  first 
years  of  her  reign,  to  act  against  her  own  convictions  and 
pose  as  a  national  ruler,  anxious  to  follow  in  the  footsteps  of 
her  Orthodox  predecessors.  We  derive  our  knowledge  of 
this  fact  from  her  own  memoirs,  in  which,  speaking  of  herself 
in  the  third  person,  she  makes  this  confession : 

On  the  fifth  or  sixth  day  after  her  accession  to  the  throne, 
Catherine  II.  arrived  at  the  Senate.  It  happened  that  on  the 
agenda  of  that  session  was  the  question  of  the  admission  of  Jews 
into  Russia.  The  Senators  unanimously  declared  that  their  admis- 
sion was  useful,  but  Catherine,  in  view  of  the  circumstances  at  the 
time,  found  it  difficult  to  give  her  assent.  The  Senator  Count 
Odoyevski  came  to  her  aid.  He  rose  up  and  said:  "  Before  mak- 
ing a  decision,  perhaps  your  Imperial  Majesty  will  consent  to  see 
the  autograph  decision  which  on  a  similar  occasion  was  rendered 
by  Empress  Elizabeth."  Catherine  ordered  the  documents  to  be 
brought,  and  she  found  that  Empress  Elizabeth,  prompted  by  piety, 
had  written  on  the  margin,  "  From  the  enemies  of  Christ  I  desire 
neither  gain  nor  profit."  It  is  necessary  to  observe  that  less  than 
a  week  had  passed  since  Catherine's  accession  to  the  throne.  She 
had  been  placed  on  it  for  the  defense  of  the  Greek  Orthodox  faith; 
she  had  to  deal  with  a  pious  people  and  with  a  clergy  to  which  its 
estates  had  not  yet  been  returned,  and  which,  in  consequence  of 
this  ill-fitting  measure,  had  nothing  to  live  on.  The  minds,  as  is 
always  the  case  after  such  a  great  upheaval  [the  violent  death 
of  Peter  III.],  were  in  a  state  of  great  excitement.  To  begin 
her  reign  by  the  admission  of  Jews  would  not  at  all  have  helped  to 
pacify  their  minds;  to  declare  it  as  injurious  was  also  impossible. 
Catherine  acted   simply:    when  the  Procurator-General  collected 


260  THE  JEWS   IN  RUSSIA  x\ND  POLAND 

the  votes  and  approached  her  for  her  decision,  she  said  to  him, 
"  I  desire  that  this  matter  be  postponed  for  another  time."  Thus 
it  often  happens  that  it  is  not  enough  to  be  enlightened,  to  have 
good  intentions,  and  even  the  power  to  realize  them. 

In  this  way,  in  spite  of  the  unanimous  opinion  of  the  Senate, 
that  the  admission  of  Jews  was  heneficial  to  Russia,  and  in 
spite  of  her  own  liberal  frame  of  mind,  Catherine  II.  left  the 
Jewish  question  in  its  former  state,  being  afraid  of  arousing 
against  her  the  resentment  of  the  reactionary  element  of  the 
Eussian  people.  In  the  very  same  year,  on  December  4,  1762, 
the  Empress,  in  issuing  a  manifesto  permitting  all  foreigners 
to  travel  and  to  settle  in  Eussia,  added  the  fatal  formula, 
hromye  Zhydov  ("except  the  Jews"), 

Two  years  later,  in  1764,  Catherine  II.  received  a  petition 
from  the  Little  Eussian  nobles  and  elders,  who,  together  with 
the  hetman,  pleaded  for  the  restoration  of  the  autonomous 
"  ancient  rights "  of  Little  Eussia,  which  had  been  grossly 
violated  by  the  Eussian  Government.  Out  of  the  twenty 
clauses  of  the  document,  one  refers  to  the  Jews.  The  repre- 
sentatives of  the  Little  Eussian  people  declare  that  the  law 
barring  Jews  from  entering  their  province  had  inflicted  great 
damage  on  the  local  trade,  because  the  Jews,  "  being  inhabit- 
ants of  a  neighboring  state,  take  a  very  large  part  in  Little 
Eussian  commerce,  buying  the  goods  of  Little  Eussia  at  a 
much  larger  price,  and  the  foreign  goods  at  a  smaller  price,  as 
compared  with  that  now  prevailing."  The  petition  concludes 
with  these  words : 

That  the  above-mentioned  Jews  be  granted  domicile  in  Little 
Russia,  with  this  we  dare  not  trouble  your  Imperial  Majesty.  All 
we  do  is  to  plead  most  humbly  that,  for  the  sake  of  promoting 
Little  Rxissian  commerce,  the  Jews  be  allowed  to  visit  Little 
Russia  for  free  commercial  transactions. 


THE  RUSSIAN  QUARANTINE  AGAINST  JEWS        261 

The  petition  was  not  granted,  for  even  Catherine  II.  "  dared 
not "  repeal  the  inquisitorial  resolution  of  Elizabeth  Petrovna 
against  "the  enemies  of  Christ." 

It  was  amidst  conditions  such  as  these  that  the  event  which 
marks  a  critical  juncture  in  the  history  of  the  Jewish  people 
took  place.  Starting  with  the  year  1772,  Eussia  began  to 
acquire  the  inheritance  of  disintegrating  Poland.  The  coun- 
try which  had  stood  in  fear  of  a  few  thousand  Jews  was  now 
forced  to  accept  them,  at  one  stroke,  by  the  tens  of  thousands 
and,  shortly  afterwards,  by  the  hundreds  of  thousands.  Sub- 
sequent history  will  show  in  what  way  Eussia  endeavored  to 
solve  this  conflict  between  her  anti- Jewish  traditions  and  the 
necessity  of  harboring  in  her  dominions  the  greatest  center  of 
the  Jewish  Diaspora. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

POLISH  JEWRY  DURING  THE  PERIOD  OF  THE 
PARTITIONS 

1.  The  Jews  of  Poland  after  the  First  Partition 

On  the  eve  of  the  great  crisis  which  overtook  the  Jews  of 
Western  Europe  in  the  wake  of  the  French  Revolution,  the 
vast  Jewish  center  in  Eastern  Europe  was  in  a  state  of  political 
and  social  disintegration.  We  refer  to  the  position  of  Polish 
Jewry  during  the  interval  between  the  first  partition  of  Poland 
and  the  second  (1772-1793). 

The  first  vivisection  had  just  been  performed  on  the  diseased 
organism  of  the  Polish  Republic*  Russia  had  chopped  off  one 
flank — the  province  of  White  Russia^;  Austria  had  seized 
Galicia,  and  Prussia  had  helped  herself  to  Pomerania  and  a 
part  of  the  province  of  Posen.  Correspondingly  the  compact 
organism  of  Polish  Jewry  was  divided  among  the  three  Powers. 
One  section  of  this  huge  mass,  which  lived  a  secluded  and 
thoroughly  original  life  of  its  own,  suddenly  became  the  object 
of  "  reformatory  "  experiments  in  the  laboratory  of  Joseph  II. 
Another  section  found  itself  in  the  role  of  a  "  tolerated  "  popu- 
lation in  the  royal  barracks  of  Frederick  II.,  who  would  fain 
have  acquired  the  Polish  provinces  minus  their  Jewish  inhabit- 
ants. A  third  portion  came  imder  the  sway  of  Russia,  a 
country  which  had  not  yet  become  reconciled  to  the  presence 
of  a  handful  of  Jews  on  the  border  of  her  Empire,  in  the  prov- 
ince of  Little  Russia. 

[*0n  this  expression  see  p.  88,  n.  1.] 

['  It  consisted  of  the  present  Governments  of  Moghllev  and 
Vitebsk.] 


THE  PERIOD  OF  THE  PARTITIONS  263 

What  was  left  of  Polish  Jewry  after  the  surgical  operation 
of  1772  experienced,  after  its  own  fashion,  all  the  pre-mortal 
agonies  of  the  doomed  commonwealth,  which  was  destined  to 
undergo  two  more  partitions.  Dying  Poland  was  tossing  about 
restlessly,  endeavoring  to  prolong  its  existence  by  the  ena<;t- 
ments  of  the  Permanent  Council  or  by  the  reforms  of  the 
Quadrennial  Diet  (1788-1791)/  In  connection  with  the  gen- 
eral reforms  of  the  country  the  need  was  felt  of  curing  the  old 
specific  ailment  of  Poland,  the  Jewish  Problem.  The  finance 
committee  of  the  Quadrennial  Diet  gathered  all  available  in- 
formation concerning  the  number  of  Jews  in  the  reduced  king- 
dom and  their  economic  and  cultural  status. 

The  following  are  the  results  of  this  official  investigation, 
as  embodied  in  the  report  of  one  of  the  members  of  the  com- 
mittee, the  well-known  historian  Thaddeus  Chatzki,  who  made 
a  special  study  of  the  Jewish  problem. 

Officially  the  number  of  Jews  residing  in  Poland  and  Lithu- 
ania about  the  year  1788  was  computed  at  617,033.  Chatzki, 
fortified  by  an  array  of  additional  data,  rightly  points  out 
that,  owing  to  the  fact  that  fiscal  considerations  caused  the 
people  to  evade  the  official  census,  the  actual  number  of  Jews 

[*After  the  first  partition  of  Poland  the  Government  of  the 
country  was  placed  in  the  hands  of  a  Permanent  Council  con- 
sisting of  thirty-six  members,  who  were  to  be  elected  by  the  Diets, 
and  were  to  take  charge  of  the  five  departments  of  the  adminis- 
tration: foreign  affairs,  police,  war,  justice,  and  finance.  The 
king  was  to  be  the  president  of  the  Council.  The  Diet,  which 
assembled  on  October  6,  1788,  abolished  this  Permanent  Council, 
and  set  out  to  elaborate  a  modern  Constitution,  which  was  finally 
presented  on  May  3,  1791.  While,  according  to  Polish  law,  the 
Diets  met  only  once  in  two  years  for  six  weeks  (see  above,  p.  76, 
n.  1),  the  Diet  of  178S  declared  itself  permanent.  It  sat  for  four 
years — hence  its  name,  the  Quadrennial  Diet — until  the  adoption 
of  the  new  Constitution  in  1791  led  to  civil  war  and  to  the  inter- 
vention of  Russia.] 


264  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

mounted  up  to  at  least  900,000  souls  of  both  sexes.  This  com- 
putation agrees  substantially  with  the  authoritative  state- 
ment of  Butrymovich,  a  member  of  the  "  Jewish  Commission  " 
appointed  by  the  Quadrennial  Diet.  For,  according  to  this 
statement,  the  Jews  of  Poland  formed  an  eighth  of  the  whole 
population,  the  latter  numbering  8,790,000  souls.  The  Jewish 
population,  thus  amounting  to  practically  one  million,  multi- 
plied rapidly,  owing  to  the  custom  of  early  marriages  then 
in  vogue.  The  same  custom,  on  the  other  hand,  was  responsi- 
ble for  increased  mortality  among  Jewish  children  and  for 
an  ever-growing  physical  deterioration  of  the  adolescent  gen- 
eration. The  school  training  received  by  Jewish  children  was 
limited  to  the  study  of  the  religious  literature  of  Judaism, 
particularly  the  Talmud. 

As  regards  commerce,  the  Jews  figured  in  it  in  the  following 
proportions:  75%  of  the  whole  export  trade  of  Poland  and 
10^  of  the  imports  lay  in  their  hands.  The  living  expenses 
of  the  Jewish  business  man  were  half  as  large  as  those  of  his 
Christian  fellow-merchant,  which  fact  enabled  the  Jew  to  sell 
his  goods  at  a  much  lower  figure.  Bankruptcy  was  more  fre- 
quent among  Jewish  business  men  than  among  Christians.  In 
the  provinces  outside  of  Great  Poland  half  of  all  the  artisans 
were  Jews.  Shoemakers,  tailors,  furriers,  goldsmiths,  carpen- 
ters, stone-cutters,  and  barbers,  were  particularly  numerous 
among  them.  In  the  whole  country  only  fourteen  Jewish 
families  were  found  to  engage  in  agriculture.  Wealth  among 
Jews  was  but  very  seldom  retained  for  several  successive  gen- 
erations within  the  same  family,  owing  to  frequent  bank- 
ruptcy and  to  a  propensity  towards  risky  speculations.  A 
twelfth  part  of  the  Jewish  population  was  made  up  of  "  idlers," 
that  is,  people  without  a  definite  occupation.  A  sixtieth  part 
consisted  of  beggars. 


THE  PERIOD  OF  THE  PARTITIONS  265 

To  these  deductions,  based  ou  official  findings,  as  well  as  on 
outside  observation,  the  important  fact  must  be  added  that 
one  of  the  main  pursuits  of  the  Jews  at  that  time  was  the  liquor 
traffic,  that  is,  the  keeping  of  taverns  in  the  towns  and  villages. 
As  far  as  the  manorial  estates  were  concerned,  the  sale  of 
liquors  was  closely  connected  with  land-leasing  and  innkeep- 
ing.  In  leasing  from  the  noble  landowner  the  various  items  of 
agrarian  wealth,  such  as  dairies,  pastures,  timber,  etc.,  the 
Jew  farmed  at  the  same  time  the  "  propination,"  the  right  of 
distilling  and  selling  spirits  in  the  taverns  and  inns.  These 
pursuits  often  resulted  in  a  clash  between  the  Jew  and  the 
peasant,  that  outlawed  serf  who  was  driven  to  the  tavern, 
not  by  opulence,  but  by  extreme  poverty  and  suffering,  brought 
upon  him  by  the  heavy  hand  of  the  aristocratic  landlord. 
The  final  stage  in  the  economic  breakdown  of  the  peasant 
was  reached  at  the  door  of  the  tavern,  and  the  Jewish  liquor- 
dealer  was  in  consequence  looked  upon  as  the  despoiler  of 
the  peasant.  This  accusation  against  the  Jews  was  brought 
forward  by  the  slaveholding  magnates,  who  were  the  real  cause 
of  the  impoverishment  of  their  peasant  serfs,  and  pocketed 
the  proceeds  of  the  "  propination  "  which  they  let  out  to  the 
Jews. 

As  for  the  Jews  themselves,  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  traffic 
in  liquor  had  a  demoralizing  effect  upon  them.  The  position 
of  the  Jewish  arendar,  sandwiched  between  the  spendthrifty 
and  eccentric  pan,  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  downtrodden 
khlop,  on  the  other,  was  far  from  enviable.  In  the  eyes  of 
the  landowner  the  arendar  was  nothing  but  a  servant,  who 
received  no  better  treatment  at  his  hands  than  the  khlop.  If 
perchance  the  roads  or  bridges  on  the  estate  were  found  in  bad 
condition,  the  arendar  would  sometimes  be  subjected  to  cor- 


266  THE  JEWS   IN  RUSSIA  AND   POLAND 

poral  punishment  for  it.  When  the  pan  engaged  in  one  of  his 
frequent  orgies,  the  first  victims  of  liis  recklessness  were  the 
arendar  and  his  family.  A  good  illustration  is  afforded  by  an 
entry  in  the  diary  of  a  Volhynian  country  squire,  from  the 
year  1774: 

The  arendar  Hershko  '  has  remained  ninety-one  thaler  in  arrears 
from  last  term.  I  was  forced  to  attach  his  goods.  According  to 
the  clause  of  the  contract  I  have  the  right,  in  case  of  non-payment, 
to  keep  him  with  his  wife  and  children  in  prison  as  long  as  I  like, 
until  he  pays  up.  I  gave  orders  to  have  him  put  in  chains  and 
locked  up  in  the  pig-sty  together  with  the  swine;  the  wife  and  the 
bahurs  [young  sons]  I  left  in  the  inn,  except  for  the  youngest  son 
Layze  [Lazarus].  The  latter  I  took  to  the  manor,  and  I  had  him  in- 
structed in  the  [Catholic]  catechism  and  the  prayers. 

The  boy  in  question  was  forced  to  make  the  sign  of  the  cross 
and  to  eat  pork.  Only  the  arrival  of  Jews  from  Berdychev, 
who  remitted  tlie  debt  of  the  arendar,  saved  the  father  from 
imprisonment  and  the  son  from  enforced  conversion. 

It  is  interesting  to  inquire  into  the  causes  which  drove  the 
Jewish  populace  into  the  unenviable  pursuits  of  land-leasing 
and  rural  liquor-dealing.  Although  forming  but  one-eighth  of 
the  population  of  Poland,  the  Jews  furnished  50%  of  the  whole 
nvmiber  of  artisans  in  the  realm  and  75;^  of  those  engaged  in  the 
export  trade — the  export,  be  it  noted,  of  agricultural  products, 
such  as  timber,  flax,  skins,  and  all  kinds  of  raw  material.  All 
these  occupations  were  obviously  insufficient  for  their  mainte- 
nance. In  Poland  no  less  than  in  Western  Europe  neither  the 
mercantile  guilds  nor  the  trade-unions,  which  to  a  considerable 
extent  were  made  up  of  Germans,  admitted  Jewish  artisans 
and  merchants  into  their  corporations,  and  as  a  result  the 
sphere  of  Jewish  activity  was  extremely  limited. 

[*  Popular  Polish  form  of  the  Jewish  name  Hirsch.] 


THE  PERIOD  OF  THE  PARTITIONS  2G7 

The  same  burghers  and  business  men  were  also  the  pre- 
dominating element  in  the  composition  of  the  magistracies, 
and  in  the  majority  of  cities  it  lay  in  their  power  to  grant  or 
refuse  licenses  to  their  Jewish  competitors  for  pursuing  com- 
merce or  handicrafts.  The  clause  in  the  Polish  parliamentary 
Constitution  of  1768,  which  placed  the  economic  activity  of 
the  Jews  in  the  cities  under  the  control  of  the  magistracies, 
might  have  been  literally  dictated  by  the  latter.  It  ran  as 
follows : 

Whereas  the  Jews  inflict  intolerable  damage  upon  the  cities  and 
the  burghers,  and  rob  them  of  their  means  of  subsistence.  .  .  .  , 
be  it  resolved  that  in  all  towns  and  townlets  in  which  the  Jews 
have  no  special,  constitutionally  guaranteed  privileges,  they  be 
forced  to  conduct  themselves  according  to  the  agreements  entered 
into  with  the  municipalities,  and  be  forbidden,  on  pain  of  severe 
fines,  to  arrogate  to  themselves  any  further  rights. 

It  goes  without  saying  that  these  "  agreements  "  with  the 
Christian  business  men  consisted  as  a  rule  in  nothing  else 
than  the  prohibition  or  limitation  of  local  Jewish  competition. 
In  this  manner  the  orgiiiators  of  the  parliamentary  Consti- 
tution, the  landed  proprietors  and  townspeople,  were  those 
who  forced  the  Jews  out  of  the  cities,  and  drove  them  into  land- 
leasing  and  liquor-dealing. 

The  parliamentary  Constitution  of  1775,  which  was  promul- 
gated after  the  first  partition  of  Poland,  and  instituted  a 
supreme  administrative  body,  the  Permanent  Council,  in- 
creased the  Jewish  per  capita  tax  from  two  gulden  to  three, 
to  be  levied  on  both  male  and  female,  and  including  the  new- 
born. It  also  made  the  attempt,  though  not  after  the  cruel 
pattern  of  Western  Europe,  to  place  certain  restrictions  on 
Jewish  marriages.  The  rabbis  were  interdicted  from  per- 
forming the   marriage  service  for  the  Jews  who  were  not 


268  THE  JEWS   IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

engaged  in  one  of  the  legitimate  occupations,  such  as  handi- 
crafts, commerce,  agriculture,  or  manual  labor,  or  who  were 
unable  to  indicate  their  sources  of  livelihood.  Parenthetically 
it  may  be  remarked  that  this  law  was  never  applied  in  practice. 

Ancient  Poland  never  had  a  "  Pale  of  Settlement,"  the  Jews 
being  merely  barred  from  residing  in  several  so-called  "  privi- 
leged "  toAvns.  One  of  these  forbidden  places  was  the  capital, 
Warsaw.*  The  Jews  had  long  been  refused  the  right  of  per- 
manent settlement  in  that  city.  They  were  only  allowed  to 
sojourn  there  temporarily  during  the  sessions  of  the  various 
Diets,  simultaneously  with  which  the  commercial  fairs  were 
generally  timed  to  take  place. 

The  parliamentary  Constitution  of  1768,  in  sanctioning  this 
"ancient  custom"  of  admitting  the  Jews  temporarily  into 
Warsaw,  gave  as  its  reason  "  the  common  welfare  and  the  neces- 
sity of  reducing  the  high  cost  of  merchandise,"  this  high  cost 
resulting  invariably  from  the  absence  of  Jewish  competition. 
In  the  capital  the  following  procedure  became  customary :  two 
weeks  prior  to  the  opening  of  the  Diet  the  Crown  Marshal 
informed  the  inhabitants  of  Warsaw  by  trumpet  blasts  that 
visiting  Jews  were  permitted  to  engage  in  commerce  and 
handicrafts,  and  two  weeks  after  the  conclusion  of  the  session 
of  the  Diet  trumpet  blasts  again  heralded  the  fact  that  it  was 
time  for  the  Jews  to  take  to  their  heels.  Those  who  were  slow 
in  leaving  the  city  were  expelled  by  the  police.  As  a  rule,  how- 
ever, the  exiles  managed,  under  all  sorts  of  pretexts,  to  return 
the  day  after  their  expulsion,  in  the  capacity  of  new  arrivals^ 
and  they  continued  to  reside  in  the  city  for  several  weeks  by 
"persuading"  the  inspectors  of  the  marshal.  As  a  result. 
Crown  Marshal  Lubomirski  established  a  system  of  tickets  for 

['See  p.  85.] 


THE  PERIOD  OF  THE  PARTITIONS  ^(jy 

visiting  Jews,  each  ticket  costing  a  silver  groschen,  which 
granted  the  right  of  a  five  da3^s'  sojourn  in  the  capital.  With- 
out such  a  ticket  no  Jew  dared  show  himself  on  the  street. 
The  collection  from  these  tickets  netted  an  annual  income  of 
some  200,000  gulden  for  the  marshal's  treasury. 

When  some  of  the  high  Polish  dignitaries,  who  owned  entire 
districts  in  Warsaw,  made  the  discovery  that  it  was  possible  to 
convert  Jewish  rightlessness  into  cash,  they  began,  for  a  definite 
consideration,  to  accord  permission  to  the  Jews  to  settle  on  their 
estates,  which  lay  beyond  the  city  ramparts.  In  this  way  there 
gradually  came  into  being  a  settlement  known  under  the 
name  of  New  Jerusalem.  The  Christian  burghers  of  War- 
saw raised  a  terrible  outcry  demanding  the  literal  applica- 
tion of  the  law  which  barred  the  Jews  from  settling  perman- 
ently in  the  capital.  Thereupon  Lubomirski  adopted  stringent 
measures  against  the  Jews,  notwithstanding  the  protests  of  the 
highly-placed  house-oMoiers  and  regardless  even  of  the  inter- 
vention of  the  King.  On  January  22,  1775,  the  Jews  were 
expelled  from  Warsaw;  their  homes  in  New  Jerusalem  were 
demolished,  and  all  their  goods  were  transferred  to  the  armory 
or  the  barracks,  where  they  were  sold  at  public  auction. 

This  was  a  severe  blow  to  the  mercantile  Jewish  population, 
which  was  now  cut  off  from  the  political  and  industrial  center 
of  the  country.  The  Jews  had  to  content  themselves  again 
with  temporary  visits  during  the  sbort  term  of  the  parlia- 
mentary sessions.  In  the  course  of  time  the  former  evasion 
of  the  law  came  into  vogue  again.  In  1784  the  administra- 
tion, appealed  to  by  the  magistracy,  once  more  undertook  to 
clear  the  capital  of  Jews.  The  situation  was  modified  some- 
what towards  the  end  of  1788,  when  the  Quadrennial  Diet 
began  its  sessions.     The  Jews  were  inclined  to  assume  that. 


5370  THE  JEWS   IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

inasmuch  as  the  Diet  was  sitting  permanently,  their  right  of 
residence  in  the  capital  was  no  longer  subject  to  a  time  limit. 
Accordingly  the  Jews  began  to  flock  to  Warsaw,  and  several 
thousands  of  them  were  soon  huddled  together  in  the  center  of 
the  city.  This  of  course  aroused  the  ire  of  the  burghers  and 
the  magistracy  against  the  new-comers,  resulting  subsequently 
in  a  sanguinary  conflict. 

Tn  tliis  manner  law  and  life  were  constantly  at  odds,  life 
turning  law  into  fiction  wlienever  in  opposition  to  its  demands, 
and  law  retaliating  by  dealing  occasional  blows  at  life. 

The  milliou  Jews  pressed  their  way  into  tlie  eight  millions 
of  the  native  population  like  a  wedge,  which,  once  having 
entered,  could  not  be  displaced.  For  by  occupying  the  ori- 
ginally empty  place  of  the  mercantile  estate,  the  Jews  had 
for  many  centuries  served,  so  to  speak,  as  a  tie  between  the 
bipartite  nation  of  nobles  and  serfs.  Now  a  new  wedge,  the 
Christian  middle  class,  was  endeavoring  to  displace  the  Jewish 
element,  but  it  failed  in  its  efforts.  For  the  Jewish  population 
had  become  inextricably  entwined  with  the  economic  organism 
of  Poland,  though  remaining  a  stranger  to  its  national  and 
spiritual  aspirations.  This  was  the  tragic  aspect  of  the  Jewish 
question  in  Poland  in  the  period  of  the  partitions. 

Deeply  stirred  by  the  catastrophe  of  1772,  Poland  fell  to 
making  reforms  as  a  means  of  salvation.  She  was  anxious  to 
expiate  her  old  sins  and  turn  over  a  new  leaf.  Here  she  found 
herself  face  to  face  with  the  Jewish  problem :  a  huge  and  com- 
pact population  of  dift'erent  birth  and  creed,  with  an  autono- 
mous communal  life,  with  a  separate  language,  and  with  cus- 
toms and  manners  of  its  owti,  was  scattered  all  over  the  realm 
and  interwoven  with  all  branches  of  economic  endeavor.  This 
secluded  population,  which  Polish  legislation  no  less  than  the 


THE  PERIOD  OF  THE  PARTITIONS  371 

arrogance  of  the  rxobility  aud  the  intolerance  of  the  Church  had 
estranged  from  political  and  civil  life,  survived  as  a  relic  of  the 
old  order,  which  was  now  tottering  to  its  fall.  The  ruling  class, 
which  had  brought  about  this  state  of  things,  was  naturally 
loth  to  acknowledge  its  responsibility  for  the  decomposition 
of  Poland,  and  so  the  guilt  was  thrown  on  the  shoulders  of  the 
Jews,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  their  position  was  merely  the 
product  of  the  general  caste  structure  of  the  nation.  And 
when,  in  a  fit  of  repentance,  Poland  began  to  dig  do\\ai  into 
her  past,  she  discovered  that  one  of  her  "  sins  "  was  the  Jewish 
question,  and  she  was  bent  on  solving  it. 

Two  solutions  presented  themselves  at  that  moment.  The 
one  was  of  a  repressive  character,  permeated  with  the  old  spirit 
of  the  nobility  and  clergy.  The  other  was  of  a  comparatively 
liberal  character,  and  bore  the  impress  of  the  policy  of  "  com- 
pulsory enlightenment"  pursued  by  the  Austrian  Emperor 
Joseph  II.  The  former  found  its  expression  in  the  parlia- 
mentary project  of  Zamoiski  (1778-1780) ;  the  latter  was 
represented  by  the  proposals  of  Butrymovich  and  Chatzki, 
who  submitted  them  to  the  liberally  inclined  Quadrennial  Diet 
in  1789. 

One  of  the  Polish  historians  rightly  observes  that  "  the  cele- 
brated ex-Chancellor  [Andreas  Zamoiski]  drafted  this  law 
more  for  the  purpose  of  getting  rid  of  the  Jews  than  of  bring- 
ing about  their  amalgamation  with  the  national  organism  [of 
Poland]."  Zamoiski's  project  is  semi-clerical  and  semi- 
bureaucratic  in  character.  The  Jews  are  to  be  granted  the  right 
of  residence  in  those  towns  into  which  they  had  been  admitted 
by  virtue  of  former  agreements  with  the  municipalities,  while 
other  places  are  to  be  open  to  them  only  for  temporary  visits,  to 
attend  markets  and  fairs.  In  the  cities  the  Jews  are  to  settle  in 
18 


273  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

separate  streets,  away  from  the  Christians.  Every  Jewish  adult 
is  to  present  himself  before  the  local  administration  and  pro- 
duce a  certificate  to  the  effect  that  he  is  either  a  tradesman  own- 
ing property  of  the  minimum  value  of  a  thousand  gulden,  or  an 
artisan,  arendar,  or  agriculturist.  Those  who  cannot  prove  that 
they  belong  to  one  of  these  four  categories  shall  be  obliged  to 
leave  the  country  within  a  year.  In  case  they  refuse  to  leave 
voluntarily,  they  are  to  be  placed  under  arrest,  and  sent  to  a 
penitentiary.  Moreover,  the  author  of  the  project,  repeating 
the  old  ecclesiastic  regulations,  proposes  to  bar  the  Jews  from 
those  financial  and  economic  functions,  such  as  the  leasing  of 
crown  lands,  public  contracts,  and  collection  of  revenues,  in 
which  they  might  exercise  some  form  of  control  over  Christians. 
For  the  same  reason  the  Jews  are  to  be  interdicted  from  keeping 
Christian  help,  and  so  forth.  Compulsory  conversion  of  Jews 
is  to  be  discountenanced;  yet  those  already  converted  are  to 
be  removed  from  their  old  environment,  and  not  to  be  allowed 
even  to  see  their  former  coreligionists,  except  in  the  presence 
of  Christians. 

The  Catholic  clergy  was  so  well  pleased  with  Zamoiski's 
project  that  the  Archbishop  of  Plotzk  attached  his  signature 
to  it.  Having  fortified  himself  by  ecclesiastical  and  police 
safeguards,  Zamoiski  was  at  liberty  to  pay  a  scant  tribute  to 
the  spirit  of  the  age  by  including  in  his  project  the  principle 
of  the  inviolability  of  the  person  and  property  of  the  Jew. 
After  binding  the  Jew  hand  and  foot  by  these  draconian 
regulations  there  was  indeed  no  necessity  for  further  insulting 
him. 

An  entirely  different  position  is  taken  by  the  anonymous 
author  of  a  Polish  pamphlet  which  appeared  in  Warsaw  in 
1782  under  the  title,  "  On  the  Necessity  of  Jewish  Reforms 


THE  PERIOD  OF  THE  PARTITIONS  273 

in  the  Lands  of  the  Polish  Crown."  The  writer,  who  dis- 
guises his  identity  under  the  pseudonym  "  A  Nameless  Citi- 
zen/' is  opposed  to  retrogressive  measures,  and  favors  legisla- 
tion of  an  utilitarian  and  enlightened  character.  As  far  as  the 
Jewish  religion  is  concerned,  he  is  willing  to  let  the  Jews  keep 
their  dogmas,  but  deems  it  necessary  to  combat  their  "  harm- 
ful religious  customs,"  such  as  the  large  number  of  festivals, 
the  dietary  laws,  and  so  forth.  It  is  important  in  his  opinion 
to  curtail  their  communal  autonomy  by  confining  it  to  religious 
matters,  so  that  the  Jews  shall  not  form  a  state  within  a  state. 
In  order  to  stimulate  the  amalgamation  of  the  Jews  with  the 
Polish  nation,  they  are  to  be  compelled  to  adopt  the  Polish 
language  in  their  business  dealings,  to  abandon  the  Yiddish 
vernacular,  and  to  be  interdicted  from  printing  Hebrew 
books  or  importing  them  from  abroad.  On  the  economic 
side  the  Jews  are  to  be  barred  from  keeping  inns  and  selling 
liquor  in  them,  only  handicrafts,  honest  business,  and  agricul- 
ture being  left  open  to  them.  In  this  way  the  project  of  the 
"  Nameless  Citizen  "  seeks  to  render  the  Jews  "  innocuous  " 
by  compulsory  amalgamation,  just  as  the  preceding  project  of 
Zamoiski  endeavored  to  attain  the  same  end  by  compulsory 
isolation.  After  having  been  rendered  "  innocuous,"  the  Jew 
may  be  found  worthy  of  receiving  equal  rights  with  his  Chris- 
tian fellow-citizens. 

It  is  not  difficult  to  discern  in  this  project  the  influence  of 
Joseph  II.'s  policy,  which  similarly  sought  to  effect  the  "  im- 
provement "  of  the  Jew  through  compulsory  enlightenment 
and  his  amalgamation  with  the  native  population,  as  a 
preliminary  for  his  attainment  of  equal  rights.  It  seems  that 
the  project  met  with  a  friendly  reception  in  the  progressive 
circles  of  Polish  society,  which  were  animated  by  the  ideas  of 


2]i  THE  JEWS   IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

the  eighteenth  century.  The  anonymous  pamphlet  appeared  in 
a  second  edition  in  1785,  and  a  third  edition  was  published  in 
1789  by  Butrymovich,  a  deputy  of  the  Quadrennial  Diet,  who 
added  comments  of  his  own.  A  year  later  Butrymovich  ex- 
tracted from  his  edition  the  project  of  Jewish  reform,  and  laid 
it  before  the  committee  of  the  Diet,  which  was  then  meeting 
amidst  the  uproar  of  the  great  French  Revolution.^ 

As  for  the  inner  life  of  this  Jewish  mass  of  one  million 
souls,  it  displays  the  same  saddening  spectacle  of  disintegra- 
tion. The  social  rottenness  of  the  environment,  the  poison  of 
the  decaying  body  of  Poland,  worked  its  way  into  Jewish  life, 
and  began  to  undermine  its  foundations,  once  so  firmly 
grounded.  The  communal  autonomy,  which  had  been  the 
mainstay  of  public  Jewish  life,  was  unmistakably  falling  to 
pieces.  In  the  southwestern  region,  in  Podolia,  Volh3Tiia,  and 
Galicia, — the  last  having  been  annexed  by  Austria, — it  had 
been  shattered  by  the  great  religious  split  produced  by 
Hasidism.  The  Kahal  organization  was  tottering  to  its  fall, 
either  because  of  the  division  of  the  community  into  two  hos- 
tile factions,  the  Hasidim  and  ilithnagdim,  or  because  of  the 
inertia  of  the  Hasidic  majority,  which,  blindly  obeying  the 
dictates  of  the  Tzaddik,  was  incapable  of  social  organization. 
In  the  northwestern  region,  in  Lithuania  and  White  Eussia, 
— the  latter  having  become  a  Russian  province — the  rabbinical 
party,  going  hand  in  hand  with  the  Kahal  authorities,  was 
superior  to  the  forces  of  Hasidism.  Xevertheless  the  Kahal 
organization  was  infected  by  the  general  process  of  degenera- 
tion, which  had  seized  the  country  at  large  in  the  partition 
period.  The  Jewish  plutocracy  followed  the  example  of  the 
Polish   pans  in  exploiting  the  poor  laboring  masses.     The 

'  See  p.  280. 


THE  PERIOD  OF  THE  PARTITIONS  2;5 

rabbinate,  like  the  Polish  clergy,  catered  to  the  rich.  The 
secular  aud  the  ecclesiastic  oligarchy,  which  controlled  the 
Kahal,  victimized  the  community  by  a  shockingly  dispropor- 
tionate assessment  of  state  and  communal  taxes,  throwing  the 
main  burden  on  the  impecunious  classes,  and  thus  bringing 
them  to  the  verge  of  ruin.  The  parnasim,  or  wardens,  of  the 
community,  as  well  as  the  rabbis,  were  occasionally  found 
guilty  of  embezzlement,  usury,  and  blackmail. 

The  oppression  of  the  Kahal  oligarchy  went  to  such  lengths 
that  the  suffering  masses,  unmindful  of  the  traditional  pro- 
hibition to  appeal  to  the  "  law  courts  of  the  Gentiles,"  fre- 
quently sought  to  obtain  redress  from  the  Christian  adminis- 
tration against  these  Jewish  satraps.  In  1783  representatives 
of  the  lower  classes,  principally  artisans,  of  the  Jewish  popu- 
lation of  Minsk,  lodged  a  complaint  with  the  Lithuanian 
Financial  Tribunal  against  the  local  Kahal  administration, 
whicli  "  was  completely  ruining  the  community  of  Minsk." 
They  alleged  that  the  Kahal  leaders  embezzled  the  receipts  from 
taxation,  and  misappropriated  the  surplus  for  their  own  benefit, 
that  by  means  of  the  herem  (excommunication)  they  squeezed 
all  kinds  of  revenues  from  the  poor  and  appropriated  their 
hard-earned  pennies.  The  complainants  add  that  for  their 
attempt  to  lay  bare  the  misdoings  of  the  Kahal  before  the 
administration,  they  had  been  arrested,  imprisoned,  and  pil- 
loried in  the  synagogue  by  order  of  the  Kahal  wardens. 

In  Vilna,  the  capital  of  Lithuania,  celebrated  on  account 
of  its  aristocracy  of  mind  as  well  as  its  aristocracy  of  birth, 
a  split  occurred  within  the  ranks  of  the  Kahal  oligarchy  itself. 
For  nearly  twent}'  years  there  was  a  conflict  between  the  Eabbi, 
a  certain  Samuel  Vigdorovich  (son  of  Avigdor),  and  the 
Kahal,  or,  more  correctly,  between  the  rabbinical  party  and  the 


are  'iHE  JEWS   IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

Kahal  party.  The  Kabbi  had  been  convicted  of  corruption, 
drunkenness,  biased  legal  decisions,  perjury,  and  so  on.  The 
litigation  between  the  Eabbi  and  the  Kahal  had,  at  an  earlier 
stage,  been  submitted  to  a  court  of  arbitration  as  well  as  to  a 
conference  of  Litliuanian  rabbis.  Since  the  strife  and  agitation 
in  the  city  did  not  subside,  both  parties  appealed,  in  1785,  to 
Radziwill,  the  Voyevoda  of  Vilna,  who  decided  in  favor  of  tlie 
Kahal,  and  dismissed  the  Rabbi  from  office. 

The  common  people,  standing  between  the  two  belligerent 
parties,  were  particularly  bitter  towards  the  Kahal,  whose 
abuses  and  misdeeds  exceeded  all  measure.  A  little  later, 
between  1786  and  1788,  a  champion  of  the  people's  cause 
appeared  in  the  person  of  Simeon  A^'olfovich  (son  of  Wolf), 
who,  acting  as  the  spokesman  of  the  Jewish  masses  of  Vilna, 
had  to  struggle  and  suffer  on  their  behalf.  To  ward  off 
the  persecution  by  the  Kahal,  Volfovich  managed  to  obtain  an 
"  iron  letter "  from  King  Stanislav  Augustus,  guaranteeing 
inviolability  of  person  and  property  to  himself  and  to  the 
whole  Jewish  commonalty,  "  which  the  tyranny  of  the  Kahal 
had  brought  to  the  verge  of  ruin."  This  did  not  prevent  the 
Kahal  authorities  from  subjecting  Simeon  to  the  herem  and 
entering  his  name  in  the  "  black  book,''  while  the  Voyevoda, 
who  sided  with  the  Kahal  tyrants,  sent  the  mutinous  champion 
of  the  people  to  the  prison  of  Neswizh  (1788).  From  there 
the  prisoner  addressed  his  memorandum  to  the  Quadrennial 
Diet,  emphasizing  the  need  of  a  radical  change  in  the  com- 
munal organization  of  ths  Jews,  and  urging  the  abolition  of 
the  Kahal  power,  which  pressed  so  heavily  upon  the  people. 
This  struggle  between  the  Kahal,  the  rabbinate,  and  the  com- 
mon people  shook  to  its  foundations  the  social  organization  of 
the  Jews  of  Lithuania  shortly  before  the  incorporation  of  this 
country  into  the  Russian  Empire. 


THE  PERIOD  OF  THE  PARTITIONS  377 

A  somber  picture  of  the  conduct  of  the  comiBunal  oligai'chy 
is  supplied  by  one  of  the  few  broad-minded  rabbis  of  the 
period : 

The  leaders  [rabbis  and  elders]  consume  the  offerings  of  the 
people,  and  drink  wine  for  the  fines  imposed  by  them.  Being  in 
full  control  of  the  taxes,  they  assess  and  excommunicate  [their 
opponents] ;  they  remunerate  themselves  for  their  public  activity 
by  every  means  at  their  disposal,  both  openly  and  in  secret.  They 
make  no  step  without  accepting  bribes,  while  the  destitute  carry 
the  burden.  .  .  .  The  learned  cater  to  the  rich,  and,  as  for  the 
rabbis,  they  have  only  contempt  for  one  another.  The  students  of 
the  Talmud  despise  those  engaged  in  mysticism  and  Cabala,  while 
the  common  people  accept  the  testimony  of  both,  and  conclude  that 
all  scholars  are  a  disgrace  to  their  calling.  .  .  .  The  rich  value 
the  favor  of  the  Polish  pans  above  the  good  opinion  of  the  best  and 
noblest  among  the  Jews.  The  rich  Jew  does  not  appreciate  the 
honor  shown  to  him  by  a  scholar,  but  boasts  of  having  been 
allowed  to  enter  the  mansion  of  a  Polish  noble  and  view  his 
treasures. 

The  rabbi  complains  in  particular  that  the  well-to-do 
classes  are  obsessed  by  a  love  of  show;  that  the  women  wear 
strings  of  pearls  around  their  necks,  and  array  themselves 
in  many-colored  fabrics. 

The  education  of  the  young  generation  in  the  heders  and 
yeshibahs  sank  to  ever  lower  depths.  Instruction  in  the  ele- 
ments of  secular  culture  was  entirely  out  of  the  question.  The 
Jewish  school  bore  a  purely  rabbinical  character.  True,  Tal- 
mudic  scholasticism  succeeded  in  sharpening  the  intellect,  but, 
failing  to  supply  concrete  information,  it  often  confused  the 
mind.  Hasidism  had  wrested  a  huge  piece  of  territory  from 
the  dominion  of  Rabbinism,  but,  as  far  as  education  was  con- 
cernerl,  it  was  powerless  to  create  anything  new.  Tbe  religious 
and  national  sentiments  of  Polish  Jewry  had  undergone  a 


278  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

profound  transformation  at  tlie  hands  of  Hasidism,  but  the 
transformation  lured  the  Jews  backward,  far  into  the  thickets 
of  mystical  contemplation  and  blind  faith,  both  subversive 
of  rational  thinking  and  of  any  attempt  at  social  reform. 

In  the  last  two  decades  of  the  eighteenth  century,  when  the 
banner  of  militant  enlightenment  was  floating  over  German 
Jewry,  a  bitter  warfare  between  the  Hasidim  and  Mithnagdim 
was  raging  all  along  the  line  in  Poland  and  Lithuania,  with  the 
result  that  the  consciousness  of  the  political  crisis  through 
which  Polish  Jewry  was  then  passing  was  dimmed,  and  the 
appeal  from  the  West  calling  to  enlightenment  and  progress 
was  silenced.  The  specter  of  German  rationalism,  which  flitted 
across  the  horizon  of  Polish  Jewry,  produced  horror  and  con- 
sternation in  both  camps.  To  be  a  "Berliner"  was  synony- 
mous with  being  an  apostate.  A  Solomon  ^laimon  was  forced 
to  flee  to  Germany  in  order  to  gain  access  to  the  world  of  new 
ideas,  which  were  taboo  in  Poland. 

2.  The  Period  of  the  Quadrennial  Diet  (1788-1791) 

The  first  year  of  the  French  Eevolution  coincided  with  the 
first  year  of  Polish  reform.  In  Paris  the  etats  generaux 
were  transformed,  under  the  pressure  of  the  revolutionary 
movement,  from  a  parliament  of  classes  into  a  national  assem- 
bly representing  the  nation  as  a  whole.  In  Warsaw  the  new 
reform  Diet,  styled  the  Quadrennial,  or  the  Great,  though 
essentially  a  parliament  of  the  Shlakhta,  and  remaining 
strictly  within  the  old  frame  of  class  organization,  reflected 
nevertheless  the  influence  of  French  ideas  in  their  pre-revo- 
lutionary  aspect.  The  third  estate,  that  of  the  burghers,  was 
knocking  at  the  doors  of  the  Polish  Chamber,  demanding  equal 
rights,  and  one  of  the  principal  parliamentary  reforms  con- 


THE  PERIOD  OF  THE  PARTITIONS  379 

sisted  in  equalizing  the  burghers  with  the  Shlakhta  in  tb»ir 
civil,  though  not  in  their  political,  prerogatives. 

Two  other  questions  affecting  the  inner  life  of  Poland 
claimed  tlie  attention  of  the  legislators  touched  by  the  spirit 
of  reform :  the  agrarian  and  the  Jewish  question.  The  former 
was  discussed  and  brought  to  a  solution,  which  could  not  be 
other  than  favorable  to  the  interests  of  the  slaveholding  land- 
owners. As  for  the  Jewish  question,  it  cropped  up  for  a 
moment  at  the  tumultuous  sessions  of  the  Quadrennial  Diet, 
and  like  an  evil  spirit  was  banished  into  the  farthest  corner 
of  the  Polish  Chamber,  into  a  special  "  deputation,"  or  com- 
mission, where  it  stuck  forever,  without  finding  a  solution. 

It  would  not  be  fair  to  ascribe  this  failure  altogether  to  the 
conservative  trend  of  mind  of  the  rejuvenators  of  Poland. 
There  was  an  additional  factor  that  stood  in  the  way  of  radical 
reforms.  Over  the  head  of  Poland  hung  the  unsheathed  sword 
of  Eussia,  and  Eussia  was  averse  to  the  inner  regeneration  of 
the  country,  which,  having  undergone  one  partition,  was  ex- 
pected to  furnish  a  second  and  a  third  dish  for  the  table  of  the 
Great  Powers.  The  Quadrennial  Diet  was  a  protest  against 
the  oppressive  patronage  of  Eussia,  which  was  personified  by 
her  Eesident  in  Warsaw,  and  had  for  its  main  purpose  the 
preparation  of  the  country  for  the  inevitable  struggle  with  her 
powerful  neignbor.  The  "  estates  in  Parliament  assembled  " 
had  to  think  of  reorganizing  the  army  and  filling  the  war  chest 
rather  than  of  carrying  out  internal  reforms. 

But  outside  tlie  walls  of  the  Chamber  the  current  of  public 
opinion  was  whirling  and  foaming.  Side  by  side  with  the  legis- 
lative assembly,  a  literary  parliament  was  holding  its  delibera- 
tions, the  famous  pamphlet  "  literature  of  the  Quadrennial 
Diet,"  reflecting  the  liberal  currents  of  the  eighteenth  century. 


280  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

The  "  Kollontay  smithy  "  *  alone,  which  was,  so  to  speak,  the 
publishing  house  of  tlie  reformers,  flooded  the  country  with 
pamphlets  and  leaflets  touching  upon  all  the  questions  con- 
nected with  the  social  reorganization  of  the  Polish  body  politic. 
Scores  of  pamphlets  dealt  partly  or  wholly  with  the  Jewish 
question.  The  discussions  on  the  projects  of  "  Jewish  reform  " 
were  conducted  with  intense  passion,  taking  the  place  of  parlia- 
mentary debates. 

The  impulse  to  the  literary  discussion  of  the  Jewish  question 
came  from  a  pamphlet  previously  referred  to,  which  had  been 
published  by  Butrj'movich,  a  representative  of  the  city  of 
Pinsk  in  the  Diet,  who  stood  out  as  the  principal  champion 
of  the  renaissance  of  Polish  Jewry.  The  publication  consisted 
of  a  reprint  of  the  well-known  pamphlet  of  "  A  Nameless  Citi- 
zen," which  had  been  circulated  in  two  editions.'  Butrj-mo- 
vich  supplied  the  pamphlet  with  a  new  title  ("  A  Means  where- 
by to  Transform  the  Polish  Jews  into  Useful  Citizens  of  the 
Country"),  and  garnished  it  with  comments  of  his  own.  In 
this  way  the  popular  member  of  the  Diet  put  the  seal  of  his 
approval  upon  the  reform  project,  which  was  based  on  the 
assumption  that  the  Jews  in  their  present  state  were  detri- 
mental to  the  country,  not  because  of  their  intrinsic  make-up, 
but  on  account  of  their  training  and  mode  of  life,  and  that 
their  political  and  spiritual  regeneration  had  to  precede 
their  association  with  civil  life.  The  proposed  reforms  reduced 
themselves  to  the  following  measures :  to  promote  useful  pur- 
suits among  the  Jews,  such  as  agriculture  and  handicraft-s, 
and  to  remove  them  from  the  obnoxious  liquor  traffic ;  to  com- 
bat their  separateness  by  curtailing  their  Kahal  autonomy; 

[* Kollontay  (in  Polish,  KoUontaj)  was  a  radical  member  of  the 
Polish  Chamber.    See  p.  291. J 
*  See  p.  272  and  p.  273. 


THE  PERIOD  OF  THE  PARTITIONS  281 

to  supersede  the  Yiddish  dialect  by  the  Polish  language  in 
school  and  in  business ;  to  prohibit  the  wearing  of  a  distinctive 
costume  and  the  importation  of  Hebrew  books  from  abroad. 
This  reform  project  was  supplemented  by  Butrymovich  in  one 
particular:  the  Jews  were  not  to  be  admitted  to  military  ser- 
vice in  person,  until  enlightenment  had  transformed  them 
into  patriots  ready  to  serve  their  fatherland. 

Yet  even  this  project,  imbued  though  it  was  with  the  spirit 
of  patronage  and  compulsory  assimilation,  was  deemed  far 
too  liberal  by  many  representatives  of  advanced  Polish  society. 
One  of  the  progressive  Polish  journals  published  "  Keflections 
Concerning  the  Jewish  Eeform  Proposed  by  Butrymovich " 
(December,  1798).  The  writer  of  the  "  Eeflections  "  concedes 
a  certain  amount  of  "  political  common  sense  "  in  the  project, 
but  criticizes  its  author,  because,  "  in  his  great  zeal  to  pre- 
serve the  rights  of  man,  he  shows  too  much  indulgence 
towards  the  defects  of  the  Jews."  The  anon^Tiious  journalist 
in  turn  demands  the  complete  annihilation  of  the  Kahal  and 
limits  the  action  of  the  Jewish  communities  to  the  exercise  of  a 
purely  congregational  autonomy.  He  also  considers  it  neces- 
sary to  restrict  retail  trade  among  the  Jews  in  the  cities,  so  that, 
having  been  dislodged  from  commerce,  they  might  be  induced 
to  engage  in  handicrafts  and  agriculture. 

Several  magazine  writers  spoke  far  more  harshly  of  the 
Jews,  and  adopted  a  tone  bordering  on  anti-Semitism.  The 
famous  prelate  Stashitz,  the  author  of  "  A  Warning  to 
Poland  "  (Warsaw,  1790),  who  enjoyed  the  reputation  of  being 
a  democrat,  styles  the  Jews  "  a  summer  and  winter  locust  for 
the  country,"  and  voices  the  conviction  that  only  in  an  en- 
vironment in  which  idleness  is  fostered  could  this  "host  of 
parasites  "  find  shelter,  entirely  forgetting  that  these  "  para- 


382  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

sites  "  had  created  the  commerce  of  the  country  riven  between 
nobles  and  serfs. 

The  majority  of  these  vOifiers  agreed  in  one  point,  that  the 
defects  of  the  Jews  coukl  be  cured  only  by  "  reforming  "  their 
life  from  above.  An  ancient  historic  nation,  which  had  for 
centuries  managed  its  own  affairs,  was  represented  as  a  kind 
of  riffraff,  whose  life  could  be  easily  recut  after  a  new  pat- 
tern. To  achieve  this  end,  all  that  was  necessary  was  to  let 
the  Polish  language  take  the  place  of  Yiddish,  to  substitute 
the  official  Polish  school  for  the  traditional  Jewish  school,  the 
magistracy  for  the  Kahal,  handicrafts  and  agriculture  for 
commerce.  The  authors  of  the  various  schemes  disagreed 
merely  as  to  the  extent  to  which  the  radical  and  compulsory 
character  of  these  reforms  should  be  pursued.  Some  suggested 
abolishing  altogether  the  communal  autonomy  of  the  Jews 
(Ivollontay)  ;  others  would  merely  confine  it  to  definite  func- 
tions, and  place  the  Kahal  under  the  supervision  of  the 
Government  (Butrymovich  and  others).  Still  others  proposed 
to  shave  off  the  Jews'  beards  and  earlocks,  to  burn  the  Tal- 
mud, and  reduce  the  number  of  Jewish  religious  festivals. 
Others  again  were  content  with  prohibiting  the  traditional 
Jewish  costume  and  shutting  down  the  Jewish  printing-presses, 
proposing  at  the  same  time  "  to  encourage  the  translation  of 
Jewish  religious  literature  into  the  Polish  language."  The  plan 
of  limiting  the  number  of  Jewish  marriages  after  the  Austro- 
Prussian  model,  by  requiring  a  special  permit  of  the  police 
and  a  certificate  testifying  to  the  ability  of  the  candidate  to  pro- 
vide for  his  family  and  to  his  compliance  with  certain  stand- 
ards of  general  education,  appealed  to  all  the  reformers.  Sev- 
eral writers  injected  into  the  discussion  of  the  Jewish  question 
the  specific  problem  of  the  Neo-Christians,  the  converts  from 


THE  PERIOD  OF  THE  PARTITIONS  283 

among  the  Frankist  sect,  who,  having  been  merged  with  the 
Polish  gentry  and  burgher  class,  were  yet  treated  by  them  as 
strangers,  and  stood  aloof  equally  from  Christian  and  Jew- 
ish society.  The  majority  of  Polish  writers  endorsed  the  con- 
temptuous attitude  of  Polish  society  towards  these  converts, 
who  in  point  of  fact  fostered  their  old  sectarian  leanings,  trav- 
eled abroad  to  do  homage  to  Frank,  and  supplied  him  with 
money. 

In  the  babel  of  voices  condemning  the  entire  Jewish  popula- 
tion of  the  country  and  dooming  it  to  a  radical  "  refitting  " 
by  means  of  police  measures,  only  one  solitary  Jewish  voice 
made  itself  heard.  Hirsch  Yosefovich  (son  of  Joseph),  a  rabbi 
of  Khelm,  published  a  pamphlet  in  Polish,  under  the  title 
"  Reflections  Concerning  the  Plan  of  Transforming  the  Polish 
Jews  into  Useful  Citizens  of  the  Country."  While  giving 
Butrymovich  full  credit  as  an  enlightened  well-wisher  of  the 
Jews,  the  Eabbi  expresses  his  amazement  that  even  cultured 
men  indulge  in  a  Avholesale  condemnation  of  the  Jewish  people, 
and  charge  the  misdeeds  of  certain  individuals  among  them 
to  the  account  of  the  whole  nation,  which  is  endowed  with  so 
many  virtues,  and  is  of  benefit  to  the  country  in  so  many  re- 
spects. The  author  emphatically  protests  against  the  proposed 
abolition  of  the  Kahals  and  against  outside  interference  in  the 
religious  affairs  of  the  Jews,  in  a  word,  against  the  projects 
tending  to  assimilate  the  Jews  with  the  Poles,  which  assimila- 
tion "  was  bound  to  result  in  the  complete  destruction  of 
Judaism."  As  an  Orthodox  rabbi  he  refuses  to  budge  an  inch, 
even  in  the  matter  of  a  change  in  dress,  slyly  observing  that 
once  the  Jews  are  put  in  the  category  of  malefactors,  it 
seems  preferable  to  allow  them  to  retain  their  traditional 
garb,  so  as  to  mark  them  olt  from  the  Christians. 


284  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

At  tliat  time  Warsaw  evidently  did  not  yet  possess  the  type 
of  cultured  Mendelssohnians — they  appeared  in  that  city 
shortly  thereafter,  under  the  Prussian  regime — who  might  have 
been  in  a  position  to  engage  in  a  literary  discussion  of  the  pro- 
posed reforms  from  the  Jewish  point  of  view.  "  Enlighten- 
ment "  was  then  the  exclusive  privilege  of  a  small  number 
of  Jews  who,  as  agents  or  as  purveyors  of  the  Crown,  came 
into  contact  with  the  Court  or  the  Government.  The  project 
of  one  of  these  "  advanced  "  Jews,  the  royal  broker  Abraham 
Ilirschovich  (sou  of  Ilirsch),  has  been  preserved  in  the  ar- 
chives. In  this  project,  which  was  submitted  to  King  Stanislav 
Augustus  during  the  sessions  of  the  Great  Diet,  the  author 
suggests  some  of  the  patent  remedies  of  the  Polish  reformers : 
to  induce  the  Jews  to  engage  in  handicrafts  and  agriculture  "  in 
the  deserted  steppes  of  the  Ukraina  "  and  to  forbid  early  mar- 
riages. With  regard  to  the  change  in  dress,  he  advises  begin- 
ning with  the  prohibition  of  luxurious  articles  of  wear,  such  as 
silk,  satin,  velvet,  pearls,  and  diamonds,  the  chase  after  finery 
having  a  ruinous  effect  on  men  of  moderate  means.  Eabbis,  in 
the  opinion  of  Hirschovich,  ought  to  be  appointed  only  in  the 
large  cities,  and  not  in  the  smaller  towns,  for  the  reason  that  in 
these  towns,  which  are  generally  owned  by  the  squires,  the 
rabbis  purchase  their  oflBce  from  the  latter,  and  then  ruin  their 
congregations  by  all  kinds  of  assessments.  The  Kahals  should 
be  spared,  except  that  the  Government  ought  to  maintain  order 
in  them,  since  the  Jews  themselves,  on  account  of  their  differ- 
ences of  opinion,  "  cannot  institute  reasonable  rules  of  conduct 
for  themselves."  The  whole  plan  reflects  the  spirit  of  flunkey- 
ism,  ever  obsequiously  willing  to  yield  to  the  powers  that  be  in 
the  matter  "  of  eradicating  the  prejudices  and  misconceptions 
of  an  erring  people." 


THE  PERIOD  OF  THE  PARTITIONS  285 

During  the  year  17S9  and  the  first  half  of  1790  the  Jew- 
ish question  did  not  come  up  at  the  sessions  of  the  Quadrennial 
Diet.  In  the  midst  of  the  passionate  debates  raging  around  the 
supremely  important  bills  involving  the  whole  future  of  the 
body  politic,  the  Diet  remained  deaf  to  the  repeated  reminders 
of  Butrymovich,  who  demanded  the  same  urgency  for  the  pro- 
posed Jewish  reform.  iSTeither  did  the  heated  literary  dis- 
cussions centering  on  the  Jewish  question  prompt  the  popular 
representatives  to  take  it  up  more  speedily.  But  at  this  junc- 
ture ominous  shouts  from  the  street  began  to  penetrate  into  the 
Chamber  of  Deputies,  and  the  Diet  had  to  bestir  itself. 

The  metropolitan  mob  had  made  up  its  mind  to  solve  the 
Jewish  question  after  its  own  fashion.  To  the  Christian 
tradesmen  and  artisans  of  Warsaw  the  Jewish  question  was 
primarily  a  matter  of  professional  competition.  During  the 
first  two  years  of  the  Great  Diet  the  old  law  which  confined  the 
Jewish  right  of  residence  in  Warsaw  to  temporary  visits  during 
the  brief  sittings  of  the  Diets,  had  automatically  fallen  into  dis- 
use. The  Diet  having  prolonged  its  powers  for  a  number  of 
years,  the  Jews  thought  that  they  too  had  the  right  to  prolong 
their  term  of  residence.  Accordingly  an  ever-growing  wave 
of  Jewish  tradesmen  and  artisans  in  search  of  a  livelihood  began 
to  flow  from  the  provinces  into  the  busy  commercial  emporium, 
and  tliis  new  influx  could  not  fail  to  affect  the  Christian  middle 
class,  inasmuch  as  the  new-comers  diverted  purchasers  and 
customers  from  the  native  tradesmen  and  artisans,  who  were 
affiliated  with  the  guilds  and  trade-unions. 

The  privileged  burghers,  who  by  that  time  were  on  the  point 
of  being  equalized  with  the  Shlakhta  in  their  rights,  raised  a  cry 
of  indignation.  In  March,  1790,  a  crowd  of  incorporated  ar- 
tisans, among  them  a  particularly  large  number  of  tailors  and 


286  THE  JEWS   IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

furriers,  surrounded  the  towu  hall,  and  vowed  to  murder  all 
Jews,  should  the  magistracy  refuse  to  expel  them  from  Warsaw. 
John  Dekert,  a  well-known  champion  of  the  burgher  class, 
who  was  mayor  at  the  time,  immediately  brought  this  demon- 
stration to  the  notice  of  the  Diet,  and  the  latter  dispatched  two 
of  its  members  to  pacify  the  crowd.  When  asked  by  the 
deputies  about  the  motive  of  the  gathering,  tlie  artisans  de- 
clared that  the  newly-arrived  Jews  made  life  intolerable  by 
wresting  the  last  earnings  from  the  Christian  tailors  and  fur- 
riers. The  deputies  promised  to  look  into  the  matter.  Ac- 
cordingly, on  the  following  day,  the  Jewish  artisans  and  street 
venders  were  ordered  out  of  the  city,  and  only  the  merchants 
who  had  stores  or  warehouses  were  permitted  to  remain. 

Penniless  and  homeless,  the  exiled  Jews  could  do  nothing 
but  return  surreptitiously  to  Warsaw  soon  afterwards.  The 
agitation  among  the  Christian  population  commenced  auew, 
and  on  May  16,  1790,  it  vented  itself  in  a  riot.  A  certain  Fox, 
a  member  of  the  tailors'  union,  happened  that  day  to  meet  a 
J3wish  tailor  on  the  street  who  was  carrying  a  piece  of  work  in 
his  hand.  He  suddenly  attacked  him,  and  began  to  pull  the 
parcel  out  of  his  hands.  The  Jew  tore  himself  away,  and  man- 
aged to  escape.  The  shouts  of  Fox  attracted  a  crowd  of  Chris- 
tian artisans.  Some  one  spread  the  rumor  that  the  Jews  had 
killed  a  Christian  tailor.  At  once  the  cry  for  vengeance  went 
up,  and  a  riot  began.  The  mob  rushed  into  Tlomatzkie  Street, 
but  was  beaten  off  by  the  Jews,  who  had  taken  shelter  behind  a 
fence.  In  the  adjacent  streets,  however,  "  victory  "  perched 
on  the  banner  of  tlie  mob.  They  looted  private  residences  as 
well  as  stores  and  warehouses  belonging  to  Jews,  carrying  off 
whatever  was  valu-able,  and  throwing  the  rest  into  wells.  The 
municipal  guards,  which  came  rushing  along,  were  met  by 


THE  PERIOD  OP  THE  PARTITIONS  287 

a  hail  of  stones  and  bricks.  Only  when  a  detachment  of  soldiers 
on  foot  and  on  horse  appeared  was  the  crowd  dispersed  and 
order  restored. 

Stirred  by  these  events,  the  Diet  gave  orders  to  investigate 
the  matter  and  bring  the  guilty  to  justice.  Justice  in  the  case 
of  the  Christian  malefactors  amounted  to  the  arrest  of  Fox  and 
the  imprisonment  of  some  of  his  accomplices.  As  for  the  Jews, 
severe  administrative  measures  were  adopted:  any  peddler 
or  artisan  found  on  the  street  with  goods  or  orders  was  to  be 
conveyed  to  the  marshal's  guard-chamber,  punished  with  rods, 
and  expelled.  In  such  manner  were  Jewish  artisans  dealt  with 
at  a  time  when  the  projects  for  reform  were  full  of  eloquent 
l^hrases  about  the  necessity  of  attracting  the  Jews  to  handi- 
crafts in  particular  and  productive  forms  of  labor  in  general. 

The  agitation  in  Warsaw  led  moreover  to  consequences  of 
a  more  serious  nature.  The  Diet  realized  that  further  delay 
in  considering  the  Jewish  question  was  impossible  now  that  the 
street  had  begun  to  solve  it  by  its  own  simplified  methods.  On 
June  23,  1790,  the  Diet  appointed  a  "  Commission  for  Jew- 
ish Reform,"  which  was  composed  of  the  deputies  Butrymovich, 
Yezierski,  the  Castellan  of  Lukov,'  and  others.  Yezierski,  who 
soon  became  the  chairman  of  the  Commission,  was  an  advocate 
of  radical  reforms,  and  as  such  came  nearer  than  any  of  his  col- 
leagues to  a  just  estimate  of  the  economic  aspect  of  the  Jewish 
problem.  In  opposition  to  the  current  formula  of  "  transform- 
ing the  Jews  into  useful  citizens,"  he  declared  in  the  Diet  tliat 
in  his  opinion  the  Jews  as  it  was  were  useful,  because  for  a 
long  time  they  had  constituted  the  only  mercantile  element  in 
Poland,   and   had   rendered   valuable   services   by   exporting 

[*  Lukov  (in  Polish,  Lukoiv)  is  a  district  town  in  the  province 
of  Shedletz,  not  far  from  Warsaw.     Castellan  is  the  Polish  title 
for  the  head  of  a  district.] 
19 


288  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

abroad  the  products  of  the  country  aud  thus  euriching  it. 
Hence  the  favorable  financial  position  of  the  Jews  would  be 
tantamount  to  a  stronger  position  of  the  state  finances  and 
an  increase  by  many  millions  in  the  circulation  of  money.  The 
Commission,  guided  by  Yezierski  and  Butrymovich,  labored 
assiduously.  It  examined  a  nimiber  of  reform  projects  sub- 
mitted by  Butrymovich,  Chatzki,  and  others.  Butrymovich's 
project  was  an  extract  from  his  own  publication  referred  to 
previously.  Similar  in  essence  was  the  project  of  the  well- 
known  historian  aud  publicist  Thaddeus  Chatzki,  the  guiding 
spirit  of  the  finance  committee  of  the  Quadrennial  Diet.* 

In  the  beginning  of  1791  the  Commission  of  the  Diet  finished 
its  labors  on  the  Jewish  reform  project,  and  submitted  it  to  the 
Diet  for  consideration.  The  project  of  the  Commission,  the 
text  of  which  has  not  come  down  to  us,  was  doubtless  based  on 
the  proposals  of  Butrymovich  and  Chatzki.  The  Diet,  com- 
pletely absorbed  in  arranging  for  the  promulgation  of  the  Con- 
stitution of  the  third  of  May,  was  not  in  a  position  to  busy 
itself  with  the  Jewish  question.  Only  after  the  Constitution 
had  been  promulgated  in  the  session  of  May  24  was  the  Jewish 
reform  project  brought  up  again  by  Butrymovich,  who 
claimed  urgency  for  it.  But  at  that  jimcture  there  arose 
another  member  of  the  Jewish  Commission,  by  the  name  of 
Kiiolonyevski,  a  deputy  from  Bratzlav  in  Podolia,  and  an- 
nounced that  he  considered  the  project  of  the  Commission, 
with  its  extension  of  the  commercial  rights  of  the  Jews,  preju- 
dicial to  the  interests  of  Little  Poland,  and  therefore  moved  to 
recommend  his  own  proposals  to  the  attention  of  the  House. 
The  Diet  was  glad  of  an  excuse  for  postponing  the  considera- 

*  Chatzki's  project  is  reproduced  in  his  famous  book  Rozprawa  o 
Zydach,  "Inquiry  Concerning  tlie  Jews"  (edition  of  1860),  pp. 
119-134. 


THE  PERIOD  OF  THE  PARTITIONS  289 

tion  of  this  vexatious  problem.  Soon  afterwards,  iu  June,  the 
Diet  w  as  adjourned,  and  it  did  not  reassemble  until  September, 
1791. 

In  this  way  the  magna  charia  of  Polish  liberty — the  Con- 
stitution of  May  3,  1791 — was  promulgated  without  modifying 
in  the  slightest  degree  the  status  of  the  Jews.  True,  the  new 
Constitution  did  not  in  any  way  alter  the  former  caste  system 
of  the  Polish  Eepublic  itself — the  feudalism  of  the  nobility, 
the  servitude  of  the  peasantry,  and  the  privileges  of  the  gentry. 
Nevertheless  it  conferred  civil  equality  on  the  burgher  class, 
and  placed  tlic  representative  institutions  on  a  somewhat  more 
democratic  basis.  Only  the  Jew,  the  Cinderella  of  the  realm, 
was  completely  cut  off  in  this  last  will  of  dying  Poland. 

The  sessions  of  the  Diet,  which  were  renewed  in  the  fall  of 
1791,  were  surrounded  by  a  particularly  disquieting  political 
atmosphere.  The  opponents  of  the  new  Constitution  fomented 
an  agitation  in  the  country.  Civil  strife  and  war  with  Russia 
were  imminent.  Nevertheless  the  indefatigable  Butrj-movich 
had  the  courage  to  remind  the  Diet  once  again  of  the  necessity 
of  extending  the  protection  of  the  Government  to  "  the  un- 
fortunate nationality  which  is  not  in  a  position  to  effect  its  own 
rescue,  and  is  not  even  aware  of  the  direction  in  which  the  bet- 
terment of  its  lot  may  be  found."  He  demanded  that  the  Com- 
mission revise  the  project  formerly  elaborated  by  it,  with  a 
view  to  submitting  it  anew  to  the  House,  with  such  amend- 
ments as  were  "  called  forth  by  present-day  circumstances." 
Butrymovich  was  warmly  seconded  by  Yezierski,  who  in  the 
same  session  (December  30)  voiced  the  above-mentioned 
"  radical "  idea,  that  in  his  opinion  the  Jews  were  even  now 
"  useful  citizens,"'  and  not  merely  likely  to  be  *'  useful  "  in  the 


290  1'HE  JEWS   IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

future.     The  Diet  adopted  the  motion,  and  the  Commission 
once  more  resumed  its  labors. 

The  results  of  these  labors  were  minimal.  After  protracted 
deliberations  the  Commission  arrived  at  the  following  con- 
clusion : 

In  order  to  improve  the  status  of  the  Jewish  population,  it  is 
necessary  to  regulate  its  mode  of  life.  Such  regulation  is  impossi- 
ble unless  that  population  is  relieved  from  its  Kahal  indebtedness, 
which  relief  cannot  be  brought  about  until  the  finance  committee 
has  taken  up  the  question  of  liquidation.' 

The  Commission  accordingly  felt  that,  before  taking  up  tlie 
projected  reforms,  tlie  Government  should  first  point  out  ways 
and  means  of  liquidating  the  Kahal  debts.  The  resolution  of 
the  Commission  was  cheerfully  passed  in  a  plenary  session  of 
the  Diet.  A  burden  had  been  lifted  from  its  shoulders.  There 
was  no  more  need  of  bothering  about  "  Jewish  reform  "  and 
"  equality."  It  was  enough  to  instruct  the  local  courts  to  fix 
the  extent  of  the  Kahal  debts  and  authorize  the  finance  com- 
mittee to  wipe  them  off  with  moneys  taken  from  the  available 
Kahal  funds  or  other  special  sources.  Thus  it  came  about 
that,  under  the  pretext  of  liquidating  Jewish  debts,  "  Jewish 
reform  "  itself  Avas  liquidated. 

Having  been  passed  over  by  the  Constitution  of  May  3,  the 
Jews,  if  we  are  to  believe  the  accounts  of  several  contempor- 
aries, made  an  attempt  to  influence  the  Government  and  the 
Diet  through  the  instrumentality  of  King  Stanislav  Augustus, 

'  The  Jewish  communities  of  Poland  were  burdened  with  enor- 
mous debts,  representing  loans  made  by  them  in  the  course  of 
many  years,  to  pay  off  their  arrears  in  taxes,  to  meet  extraordinary 
expenditures,  and  so  on.  The  creditors  of  the  Jews  were  the 
municipal  magistracies,  the  Catholic  monasteries,  as  well  as  private 
persons.  The  question  of  liquidating  these  debts  cropped  up  time 
and  again  at  the  sessions  of  the  Polish  Diets  during  the  latter  half 
of  the  eighteenth  century. 


THE   PERIOD  OF  THE  PARTITIONS  291 

approachiug  the  latter  with  the  help  of  their  connections  at 
court.  Jewish  public  leaders  are  said  to  have  assembled  in 
secret  and  elected  three  delegates,  who  were  to  enter  into 
negotiations  with  the  King  looking  to  the  amelioration  of  the 
condition  of  the  Jews.  The  three  delegates  carried  out  their 
mandate,  towards  the  end  of  1791  and  the  beginning  of  1792, 
with  the  help  of  the  Eoyal  Secretary  Piatoli  as  their  go-between. 
Shortly  thereafter  they  were  received  by  the  King  in  special 
audience,  with  great  solemnity,  the  King,  as  the  story  has  it, 
being  seated  on  his  throne  during  the  reception.  The  Jews 
pleaded  for  civil  rights  as  well  as  for  the  right  of  acquiring 
lands  and  houses  in  the  cities,  the  preservation  of  their  com- 
munal autonomy,  and  exemption  from  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
magistracies.  The  story  goes  that  the  Jewish  delegates  held 
out  the  promise  of  a  gift  of  twenty  million  gulden  to  pay  the 
royal  debts.  Several  leaders  of  the  Diet,  among  them  Kollon- 
tay,  a  radical,  were  initiated  into  the  secret.  The  King,  accord- 
ing to  this  report,  endeavored  to  push  the  Jewish  reform  pro- 
ject through  the  Jewish  Commission  and  the  Diet,  but  failed  in 
his  efforts.  The  problem  of  ages  could  not  be  disposed  of  at 
this  anxious  hour  when  the  angel  of  death  was  hovering  over 
Poland,  while  the  unfortunate  land  was  exliausting  its  strength 
in  a  final  dash  for  inner  regeneration  and  outer  independence. 

3.    The  Last  Two  Partitions  and  Berek  Yoselovich 

The  death  struggle  of  Poland  was  approaching.  The  op- 
ponents of  the  May  Constitution  among  the  conservative  ele- 
m.cnts  of  the  country  joined  hands  with  the  Eussian  Govern- 
ment, which  in  its  own  sphere  of  influence  had  always  been  a 
])aneful  stumbling-block  in  the  path  of  progress.    The  result 


202  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

was  the  formation  of  the  Confederacy  of  Targovitza '  and  the 
outbreak  of  civil  war  (summer,  1792).  Though  severed  from 
political  life,  the  Jews  nevertheless  showed  sympathy  here  and 
there  with  the  men  that  fought  for  the  new  Constitution.  The 
Jewish  tailors  of  Vilna  undertook  to  furnish  gratis  two  hmi- 
dred  imiforms  for  the  army  of  liberty.  The  communities  of 
Sokhachev  and  Pulavy  contributed  their  mite  towards  the 
patriotic  funds.  The  Jews  of  Berdychev  took  part  in  the  depu- 
tation of  the  local  merchants  which  went  to  meet  Joseph  Ponia- 
tovski,  the  commander-in-chief  of  the  Polish  army,  and  pre- 
sented him  with  new  instruments  for  the  regimental  music 
bands.  On  many  an  occasion  the  Jewish  communities  of  Vol- 
hynia  and  Podolia  were  the  victims  of  enforced  requisitions 
from  both  belligerent  armies.  The  community  of  Ostrog  had 
to  undergo  the  bombardment  of  the  city  by  the  Eussian  army 
in  July,  1793. 

The  year  1793  saw  the  second  partition  of  Poland,  between 
Pussia  and  Prussia.  Eussia  annexed  Volhynia,  with  a  part  of 
tJie  province  of  Kiev,  Podolia,  and  the  region  of  Minsk.  Prus- 
sia, in  turn,  acquired  the  other  part  of  Great  Poland  (Kalish, 
Plotzk,*  etc.),  with  Dantzic  and  Thorn.  Once  more  an  enor- 
mous territory,  with  hundreds  of  thousands  of  Jews,  was  cut 
off  from  Poland.  The  unfortunate  nation,  seized  with  a 
paroxysm  of  pain  at  this  new  amputation,  burst  forth  against 
its  torturers.    The  Eevolution  of  1794  took  its  course. 

At  the  head  of  the  uprising  stood  Kosciuszko.^  Having  been 
reared  in  the  atmosphere  of  two  great  revolutions — the  Amer- 
ican and  the  French — he  had  a  loftier  conception  of  civic  and 
political   liberty   than    the   liberalizing   host   of   the   Polish 

[*  In  Polish,  Targowica,  a  town  in  the  Ukraina.] 

[*  See  p.  243,  n.  1.] 

['More  exactly,  Kosciuszko,  pronounced  Koshchushko.] 


THE  PERIOD  OF  THE  PARTITIONS  293 

Shlakhta.  He  was  aware  that  no  free  country  could  exist 
without  first  abolishing  the  serfdom  of  the  peasants  and  the 
inequality  of  the  citizens.  Even  in  the  heat  of  his  struggle 
for  the  salvation  of  the  fatherland,  the  Polish  leader  occa- 
sionally gave  proof  of  his  democratic  tendencies,  and  the 
oppressed  classes  could  not  but  feel  that  this  revolution  was 
more  than  merely  an  affair  of  the  Shlakhta. 

The  enthusiasm  for  liberty  communicated  itself  to  several 
sections  of  Polish  Jewry.  It  was  manifested  during  the  pro- 
longed Russo-Prussian  siege  of  Warsaw  in  the  summer  and 
autumn  of  1794,  when  the  whole  population  was  called  to  arms 
to  defend  the  capital.  The  very  same  Jews  who  but  a  little 
while  ago  had  been  attacked  on  the  streets  of  Warsaw  by  the 
burghers  and  artisans,  and  were  mercilessly  driven  from  the 
city  by  order  of  the  administration,  now,  in  the  moment  of 
danger,  fought  in  the  trenches  shoulder  to  shoulder  with  their 
persecutors,  digging  ditches  and  throwing  up  earthworks. 
Frequently  at  an  alarm  signal  the  volunteers  would  rush  out 
to  fight  back  the  besiegers.  Amidst  the  whistling  of  bullets 
and  bursting  of  shells  they  repulsed  the  enemies'  attacks  side 
by  side  with  the  other  Varsovians,  furnishing  their  quota  in 
wounded  and  killed,  and  yet  keeping  up  their  courage.  Among 
the  Jews  defending  Warsaw  the  plan  was  conceived  of  forming 
a  separate  Jewish  legion  to  iight  for  the  coimtry.  At  the  head 
of  this  patriotic  group  stood  Berck  Yoselovich.* 

Born  about  1765  in  the  little  town  of  Kretingen,'  Berek  had 
traversed  the  thorny  path  that  led  a  poor  Jewish  boy  from 
the  Jewish  religious  school   (heder)   to  the  post  of  a  pan's 

[*  Berek,  or  Berko,  popular  Polish  form  of  the  Jewish  name 
Baer. — Yoselovich.  in  Polish  Joseloivicz,  son  of  Yosel,  or  Joseph.] 

'  In  the  province  of  Zhmud  [or  Samogitia,  corresponding  practi- 
cally to  the  present  Government  of  Kovno.] 


294  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

agent.  He  entered  the  employ  of  a  high  noble,  the  Bishop  of 
Vilna,  by  the  name  of  Masalski,  and  was  thereby  launched  upon 
his  remarkable  career.  Masalski  often  went  abroad,  es- 
pecially to  Paris,  and  alway3  took  his  Jewish  agent  with 
him.  During  these  travels  young  Berek  early  acquired  the 
French  language,  and  observed  the  life  of  the  Parisian 
salons  in  which  the  master  moved.  The  plain  Polish  Jew 
perceived  a  new  world,  and  he  could  not  help  scenting  the 
new  tendencies  floating  about  in  the  air  of  the  world's  capital 
on  the  eve  of  the  great  IJe volution. 

During  the  years  of  the  Quadrennial  Diet  Berek,  who  had 
given  up  his  position  with  Masalski,  and  had  married  in  the 
meantime,  lived  in  Praga,  a  suburb  of  Warsaw.  In  the  atmos- 
phere of  patriotic  excitement,  the  vague  impressions  which  his 
contact  with  the  Polish  nobility  and  his  foreign  travels  had  left 
upon  his  mind  came  to  maturity.  The  heroic  figure  of  Kos- 
ciuszko  and  the  siege  of  Warsaw  gave  these  vague  sensations  a 
concrete  form.  He  realized  that  it  was  his  immediate  duty  to 
fight  for  the  freedom  of  the  country,  for  the  salvation  of  the 
capital,  where  Poles  and  Jews  were  equally  shut  off  and  cooped 
up  by  the  hand  of  the  enemy.  Now  was  the  time  to  prove  that 
even  the  stepchildren  of  the  nation  knew  how  to  fight  in  the 
ranks  of  her  sons,  and  that  they  deserved  a  better  lot. 

Accordingly,  in  September,  1794,  at  the  very  height  of  the 
siege,  Berek  Yoselovich,  conjointly  with  Joseph  Aronovich 
(son  of  Aaron),  a  fellow- Jew  of  like  mind,  applied  to  Kos- 
ciuszko,  the  commander-in-chief,  for  permission  to  form  a 
special  regiment  of  light  cavalry  consisting  of  Jewish  volun- 
teers. Koseiuszko  immediately  complied  with  their  request, 
and  announced  it  joyfully  in  a  special  army  order,  dated  Sep- 
tember 17,  extolling  the  patriotic  zeal  of  the  originators  of  the 


THE  PERIOD  OF  THE  PARTITIONS  295 

plan,  "  who  rem  ember  the  land  in  which  they  were  born,  and 
know  that  its  liberation  will  bestow  upon  them  [the  Jews]  the 
same  advantages  as  upon  the  others."  Berek  was  appointed 
commander  of  the  Jewish  regiment.  An  appeal  was  issued  call- 
ing for  recruits  and  for  contributions  towards  their  equipment. 
Berek's  appeal  to  his  coreligionists  was  published  in  the  official 
"Gazette"  of  Warsaw  on  October  1.  It  was  written  in 
Polish,  tliough  couched  in  the  solemn  phraseology  of  the 
Bible : 

Listen,  ye  sons  of  the  tribes  of  Israel,  all  ye  in  whose  heart  is 
implanted  the  image  of  God  Almighty,  all  that  are  willing  to  help 

in  the  struggle  for  the  fatherland Know  ye  that  now  the 

time  hath  come  to  consecrate  to  this  all  our  strength Truly, 

there  are  many  mighty  nobles,  children  of  the  Shlakhta,  and 
many  great  minds  who  are  ready  to  lay  down  their  lives!  .... 
Why  then  should  we  who  are  persecuted  not  take  to  arms,  seeing 
that  we  are  the  most  oppressed  people  in  the  world!  ....  Why 
should  we  not  labor  to  obtain  our  freedom  which  has  been  prom- 
ised us  just  as  firmly  and  sincerely  as  it  has  been  to  others?    But 

first  we  must  show  that  we  are  worthy  of  it I  have  had  the 

happiness  of  being  placed  at  the  head  of  the  regiment  by  my 
superiors.  Awake  then,  and  help  to  rescue  oppressed  Poland. 
Faithful  brethren,  let  us  fight  for  our  country  as  long  as  a  drop 
of  blood  is  left  in  us!  Though  we  ourselves  may  not  live  to  see 
this  [our  freedom],  at  least  our  children  will  live  in  tranquillity 
and  freedom,  and  will  not  roam  about  like  wild  beasts.  Awake  then 
like  lions  and  leopards! 

Berek's  language  is  crude  and  naive,  and  so  is  his  political 
reasoning.  While  calling  upon  the  Jews  to  join  "  the  mighty 
nobles  "  in  fighting  for  liberty,  he  evidently  overlooked  the  fact 
that  the  liberty  of  the  JeM^s  was  far  from  being  secured  by 
the  liberty  of  the  nobles,  among  whom  men  with  the  humani- 


296  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

tarian  tendencies  of  a  Koscinszko  were  few  and  far  between.' 
Berek,  however,  found  solace  in  the  hope  that  the  participation 
of  the  Jews  in  the  struggle  for  Polish  independence  would 
bring  about  a  change.  He  lived  at  a  time  when  the  Jews  of 
Western  Europe  were  eager  to  display  their  patriotic  senti- 
ments and  civic  virtues.  Before  his  mind's  eye  there  probably 
floated  the  figures  of  Jews  who,  since  1789,  had  served  in  the 
garde  nationale  of  Paris. 

Berek^s  enthusiasm  succeeded  in  attracting  many  volunteers. 
In  a  short  time  a  regiment  of  five  hundred  men  was  made  up. 
The  Jewish  legion,  which  was  hastily  equipped  with  the  scanty 
means  supplied  by  the  revolutionary  Government  and  by  volun- 
tary contributions,  had  the  checkered  appearance  of  militia. 
Yet  the  consciousness  of  military  duty  was  keen  in  these  men, 
many  of  whom  carried  arms  for  the  first  time  in  their  lives. 
The  Jewish  regiment  displayed  its  dauntless  and  self-sacrific- 
ing spirit  on  that  fatal  November  fourth,  the  day  of  the  terrible 
onslaught  upon  Praga  by  the  Eussian  troops  under  Suvarov. 
Among  the  fifteen  thousand  Poles  who  lost  their  lives  in  the 
intrenchments  of  Praga,  in  the  streets  of  Warsaw,  or  in  the 
waves  of  the  Vistula,  was  also  the  regiment  of  Berek  Yoselo- 
vich.  The  bulk  of  the  regiment  met  its  fate  at  the  fortifica- 
tions, being  killed  by  Eussian  shells  or  bayonets.  Berek  him- 
self survived,  and  fled  abroad  with  General  Zayonchek,  Kos- 
ciuszko's  comrade  in  arms,  Kosciuszko  himself  having  been 
made  a  Eussian  prisoner  somewhat  earlier,     Berek  was  at 

*  That  the  habits  of  the  Shlakhta  were  but  little  changed  by  the 
revolution  may  be  gauged  from  the  fact  that  in  1794  the  revolu- 
tionary Central  Council  passed  a  law  ordering  the  sale  of  crown 
lands  for  the  purpose  of  paying  the  national  debt,  but  limiting  this 
sale  to  persons  of  the  Christian  faith. 


THE  PERIOD  OF  THE  TARTITIONS  29)- 

first  arrested  in  Austria,  but  he  managed  to  escape  and  reach 
France,  where  he  found  himself  among  the  Polish  revolutionary- 
refugees. 

The  third  partition  of  Poland,  which  took  place  in  1795, 
transferred  to  Eussia  the  backbone  of  the  former  Jewry  of 
Poland,  the  dense  masses  of  Lithuania,  the  provinces  of  Vilna 
and  Grodno.  Prussia  absorbed  the  remainder  of  Great  Poland, 
including  Warsaw  and  Mazovia,'  as  well  as  the  region  of  Bialy- 
stok.  Austria  rounded  off  her  possessions  in  Little  Poland  by 
adding  the  provinces  of  Cracow  and  Lublin.  Henceforward 
the  fortunes  of  the  Polish  Jews  are  identical  with  those  of 
their  brethren  in  these  three  countries,  and  exhibit  a  "  tri- 
colored  "  appearance — Austro-Prusso-Eussian. 

However,  even  the  third  partition  of  Poland  was  not  final  as 
far  as  the  political  distribution  of  territory  is  concerned.  For 
a  short  interval  the  ghost  of  a  semi-independent  Poland  dances 
fitfully  about.  Twelve  years  after  the  third  partition. 
Napoleon  L,  in  juggling  with  the  political  map  of  Europe  and 
calling  mushroom  states  into  being,  snatched  the  province  of 
Great  Poland  from  the  grasp  of  Prussia,  and  turned  it  into  the 
Duchy  of  Warsaw,  a  small  Polish  commonwealth  under  the 
lule  of  the  Saxon  King  Frederick  Augustus  IIL,  a  grandson  of 
Augustus  IL,  the  last  Polish  King  of  the  Saxon  dynasty.  This 
took  place  in  1807,  after  the  crushing  blow  which  Prussia 
had  received  at  the  hands  of  Napoleon  and  after  the  conclusion 
of  the  Peace  of  Tilsit.  Two  years  later,  in  1809,  when 
Napoleon  had  shattered  AustTia,  he  tore  off  a  section  of 
her  Polish  dominions,  and  joined  them  to  the  Duchy  of 
Warsaw. 

['See  p.  85,  n.  1.] 


v-98  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

4.  The  Duchy  of  Waiisaw  and  the  Reaction  under 
Napoleon 

Warsaw,  having  been  cleared  of  the  Prussians,  once  more 
became,  after  an  interval  of  twelve  years,  the  capital  of  a 
separate  Polish  state,  resuscitated  under  the  patronage  of 
jSTapoleon.  The  Duchy  of  Warsaw,  which  was  made  up  of 
the  ten  "  departments,"  or  districts,  of  Great  and  Little 
Poland,  received  from  her  French  master  a  fairly  liberal 
Constitution,  two  legislative  chambers  (the  Diet  and  the 
Senate),  and  the  "Code  of  Napoleon,'^  which  had  just  been 
introduced  in  France.  The  fundamental  laws  proclaimed 
the  equality  of  all  citizens;  serfdom  was  abolished,  and  all 
class  privileges  were  abrogated. 

The  Jews  too  cherished  hopes  for  a  better  future.  The 
nimbus  of  Napoleon  as  the  originator  of  the  "  Jewish  Parlia- 
ment "  and  the  Parisian  Synhedrion,  had  not  yet  faded  from 
the  minds  of  the  Jews,  and  they  cherished  the  hope  that  the 
Emperor  would  extend  his  protection  to  the  Polish  Jews  as 
well,  but  they  were  grievously  disappointed. 

The  first  year  of  the  Duchy  of  Warsaw  (1807-1808)  coin- 
cided with  a  critical  turn  in  Napoleon's  own  policy  towards  the 
Jews  of  France.  The  "  Great  Synhedrion  "  was  disbanded, 
and  its  disbandment  was  followed  by  the  humiliating  Imperial 
decree  of  March  17,  1808,  which  for  a  decade  checked  in  almost 
the  entire  French  Empire  the  operation  of  the  law  providing 
Tor  Jewish  emancipation.  This  reactionary  step  was  grist 
to  the  mill  of  those  sinister  forces  in  Poland  which  had  learned 
nothing  from  the  violent  upheavals  their  country  had  under- 
gone, and  even  now  were  not  able  to  reconcile  themselves  to  the 
idea  of  granting  equality  to  the  unloved  tribe. 


THE  PERIOD  OF  THE  PARTITIONS  299 

In  the  spring  of  1808  the  Government  of  the  Duchy  was 
forced  to  pay  attention  to  the  Jewish  question,  in  consequence 
of  a  petition  for  civil  rights  presented  by  the  Jews,  and  in 
connection  with  the  impending  elections  to  the  Diet.  The 
Council  of  Ministers,  which  had  already  been  informed  of 
j^apoleon's  decree,  clutched  at  it  as  an  anchor  of  salvation. 
A  report  was  submitted  to  Duke  Frederick  Augustus,  in 
which  it  was  pointed  out  that  "  a  somber  future  would  be  in 
store  for  the  Duchy  if  the  Israelitish  nation,  which  is  to  be 
found  here  in  vast  numbers,  were  suddenly  to  be  allowed  to 
enjoy  civil  rights,"  the  reason  being  that  this  people  "  cherishes 
a  national  spirit  alien  to  the  country,"  and  engages  in  mi- 
productive  occupations.  The  Coimcil  of  Ministers  pointed  to 
Napoleon's  decree  suspending  the  Jewish  question  for  a  time 
as  a  convenient  means  of  evading  the  clause  of  the  Constitution 
granting  equal  rights  to  all  citizens. 

To  make  sure  of  Napoleon's  approval  in  this  matter,  the 
Government  of  Warsaw  conducted  negotiations  with  its  agents 
in  France  and  with  the  French  minister  Champagny,  who  was 
a  Jew-hater.  Napoleon's  sympathetic  attitude  towards  this 
anti-Jewish  policy  having  been  ascertained,  the  Duke  promul- 
gated on  October  17,  1808,  a  decree  to  the  following  effect : 

The  inhabitants  of  our  Varsovian  Duchy  professing  the  Mosaic 
religion  shall  be  barred  for  ten  years  from  enjoying  the  political 
rights  they  were  about  to  receive,  in  the  hope  that  during  this 
interval  they  may  eradicate  their  distinguishing  characteristics, 
which  mark  them  off  so  strongly  from  the  rest  of  the  population. 
The  foregoing  decision,  however,  will  not  prevent  us  from  allowing 
individual  members  of  that  persuasion  to  enjoy  political  rights 
even  before  the  expiration  of  said  term,  provided  they  will  prove 
themselves  worthy  of  our  high  favor,  and  will  comply  with  the 
conditions  which  will  be  set  forth  by  us  in  a  special  edict  con- 
cerning the  professors  of  the  Mosaic  religion. 


300  THE  JEWS   IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

In  this  way  the  Government  of  Warsaw  in  politely  couched 
terms,  phrased  after  the  modern  French  pattern,  managed  to 
rob  all  the  "  professors  of  the  Mosaic  religion  "  of  the  rights 
of  citizenship  which  the  Constitution  had  gTanted  them.  It 
is  true  that  the  decree  uses  the  words  "  political  rights,"  but 
in  reality  the  Jews  were  divested  by  it  of  their  elementary  civil 
rights.  In  November,  1808,  they  were  forbidden  to  acquire 
patrimonial  estates  belonging  to  the  Shlakhta.  The  humiliat- 
ing restrictions  attaching  to  the  right  of  domicile  in  Warsaw 
were  restored,  and  were  embodied  in  a  decree  issued  in  1809 
which  ordered  the  Jews  to  remove  within  six  months  from  the 
main  streets  of  the  capital,  except  a  few  individuals,  such  as 
bankers,  large  mercliants,  physicians,  and  artists.  There  was 
a  general  tendency  to  return  to  the  anti-Jewish  traditions  of 
the  Old  Polish  and  Prussian  legislation. 

The  Jewish  community  became  alarmed.  By  that  time  War- 
saw already  possessed  a  goodly  number  of  "  advanced  "  Jews, 
Avho  had  acquired  the  new  culture  of  Berlin,  and  had  divested 
themselves  of  the  distinguishing  marks  in  dress  and  outward 
appearance  for  which  the  Jews  were  penalized  with  the  loss  of 
rights.  Relying  upon  the  second  clause  of  the  ducal  decree, 
which  provided  for  the  exceptional  treatment  of  those  who 
shall  have  "  eradicated  their  distinguishing  characteristics," 
a  group  of  seventeen  Jews  of  this  type  made  representa- 
tions to  the  Minister  of  Justice  in  January,  1809,  to  the  effect 
that,  "  having  endeavored  for  a  long  time,  by  their  moral  con- 
duct and  modern  dress,  to  come  into  closer  touch  with  the  rest 
of  the  population,  they  are  now  certain  that  they  have  ceased  to 
be  unworthy  of  civil  rights."  To  this  flunkeyish  petition  the 
Minister  of  Justice,  Lubenski — one  of  the  "constitutional" 
ministers  who  managed  to  promote  the  interests  of  despotism 


THE  PERIOD  OF  THE  PARTITIONS  301 

under  the  cloak  of  liberalism — retorUd  with  coarse  sophistry, 
that  constitutional  equality  before  the  law  did  not  yet  make 
a  man  a  citizen,  for  only  those  could  claim  to  be  citizens  who 
were  loyal  to  the  sovereign,  and  looked  upon  this  country  as 
their  only  fatherland.  "  Can  those  " — added  Lubenski — "  who 
profess  the  laws  of  Moses  look  upon  this  country  as  their  father- 
land ?  Do  they  not  wish  to  return  to  the  land  of  their  fathers  ? 
....  Do  they  not  regard  themselves  as  a  separate  nation  ?  . . . . 
The  mere  change  of  dress  is  not  yet  sufficient."  The  Polish 
minister  had,  it  would  seem,  made  a  thorough  study  of 
Napoleon's  catechism  on  the  Jews. 

Aside  from  the  representatives  of  this  sartorial  culture,  who 
looked  after  their  own  personal  advantage,  there  were  among 
the  Jews  of  Warsaw  followers  of  the  Berlin  "  enlightenment," 
who  considered  it  their  duty  to  make  a  stand  for  the  rights  of 
their  people.  On  March  17,  1809,  five  representatives  of  the 
Jewish  community  of  Warsaw  submitted  a  memorandum  to 
the  ducal  Senate,  in  which  not  only  the  note  of  entreaty  but 
also  the  imdertone  of  indignation  could  be  discerned. 

Thousands  of  members  of  the  Polish  nation  of  the  Mosaic  per- 
suasion, who,  by  virtue  of  having  dwelt  in  this  country  for  many 
centuries,  have  acquired  the  same  right  to  consider  it  their  father- 
land as  the  other  inhabitants,  have  hitherto,  without  any  fault  of 
theirs,  to  the  damage  of  society  and  as  an  insult  to  mankind,  for 
reasons  that  no  one  knows,  been  doomed  to  humiliation,  and  are 
groaning  under  the  load  of  daily  oppressions. 

Contrary  to  the  enlightened  spirit  of  the  age  and  "  the 
wisdom  of  the  laws  of  Napoleon  the  Great " — the  petitioners  go 
on  complaining — the  Jews  are  denied  civil  rights,  have  no 
one  to  defend  them  in  the  Diet  or  the  Senate,  and  sorrowfully 
anticipate  that  even  "  their  children  and  descendants  will  not 
live  to  see  happier  times." 


303  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

We  carry  a  heavier  burden  of  taxation  than  the  other  citizens. 
We  are  robbed  of  the  gladsome  opportunity  of  acquiring  a  piece  of 
land,  of  building  a  little  house,  of  founding  a  household,  of  erecting 
a  factory,  of  engaging  in  commerce  unhampered,  in  a  word,  do- 
ing that  which  God  and  nature  hold  out  to  man.  In  Warsaw 
we  are  even  ordered  out  of  the  main  streets.  And  what  shall  we 
say  of  those  blessed  liberties  which  citizens  value  most  highly — 
the  right  of  electing  their  superiors  and  of  being  elected  by  their 
compatriots,  so  as  not  to  be  as  a  dead  body  in  the  civic  life  of  the 
nation?  Is  the  land  in  which  our  fathers,  paying  heavily  for  this 
privilege,  saw  the  light  of  the  world,  always  to  remain  strange  to 
us?  Gentlemen  of  the  Senate,  we  lay  before  you  the  tears  of  the 
fathers  and  of  the  children  and  of  the  coming  generations.  We 
beg  you  to  hasten  the  happy  day  when  we  may  enter  upon  the  en- 
joyment of  the  rights  and  liberties  with  which  Napoleon  the  Great 
has  endowed  the  inhabitants  of  this  country,  and  which  our  be- 
loved country  recognizes  as  the  possession  of  her  children. 

To  this  petition  of  the  Jews,  who  classed  themselves  as 
"  members  of  the  Polish  nation,"  and  were  ready  to  renounce 
their  own  national  characteristics,  the  Senate  replied  by  pre- 
senting the  Duke  with  a  heartless  report,  in  which  it  was 
pointed  out  that  the  Jews  had  brought  upon  themselves  the 
"  curtailment  of  their  rights  "  by  their  "  dishonest  pursuits  " 
and  by  "  their  mode  of  life,  subversive  of  the  welfare  of  society." 
It  was  necessary  first  to  reform  the  life  of  the  Jews  and  to 
appoint  a  committee  to  elaborate  plans  of  reform.  It  may  be 
remarked  parenthetically  that  a  committee  of  this  kind  had 
been  in  existence  since  the  end  of  1808,  and  had  worked  out  a 
"  plan  of  reform  "  akin  in  spirit  to  the  projects  of  the  Quad- 
rennial Diet  and  the  Parisian  Synhedrion.  But  all  these  com- 
mittees were  in  reality  nothing  but  a  decent  way  of  burying 
the  Jewish  question. 

At  the  very  time  when  the  Government  of  the  Varsovian 
Duchy  rejected  the  Jewish  appeal  for  equality,  under  the 


THE  PERIOD  OF  THE  PARTITIONS  303 

pretext  that  the  Jews  lacked  patriotism,  there  lived  and  worked 
in  Warsaw  a  shining  example  of  Polish  patriotism,  Berek 
Yoselovich,  the  hero  of  the  Revolution  of  1794.  After  roaming 
about  for  twelve  years  in  Western  Europe,  where,  having  en- 
listed in  the  ranks  of  the  "  Polish  legions  "  of  Domvrovski,  he 
took  part  in  many  Napoleonic  wars,  Berek  returned  home  as 
soon  as  the  Duchy  was  established,  and  received  an  appointment 
as  commander  of  a  detachment  in  the  regular  Polish  army. 
The  dream  of  the  old  fighter  had  failed  to  come  true.  In  vain 
had  his  "  Jewish  regiment "  filled  the  trenches  of  Praga  with 
their  dead  bodies.  Twelve  years  later  the  brethren  of  those 
who  had  sacrificed  their  lives  for  their  fatherland  had  to  beg 
for  the  rights  of  citizenship.  But  Berek  seems  to  have  for- 
gotten his  former  ambition  on  behalf  of  his  fellow-Jews,  having 
in  the  meantime  become  a  professional  soldier.  It  was  solely 
Polish  patriotism  and  personal  bravery  that  prompted  the  last 
military  exploits  of  his  life.  When,  in  the  spring  of  1809,  war 
broke  out  between  the  Duchy  and  the  Austrians,  Berek  Yoselo- 
vich, at  the  head  of  his  regiment,  rushed  against  the  enemy's 
cavalry  near  the  town  of  Kotzk.'  He  fell  on  May  5,  after  a 
series  of  heroic  deeds. 

The  papers  lamented  the  loss  of  the  hero.  A  representative 
of  the  Polish  aristocracy,  the  proud  Stanislav  Pototzki,  devoted 
a  special  discourse  to  his  memory  at  a  meeting  of  the  "  Society 
of  the  Friends  of  Science  "  in  Warsaw. 

Thou  hast  saddened — thus  spoke  the  orator — the  land  of  heroes, 
thou  valiant  Colonel  Berek,  when  unmeasured  boldness  drove  thee 

into  the  midst  of  the  enemy Well  doth  the  fatherland 

remember  also  thy  old  wounds  and  thy  former  exploits,  remember 
eternally  that  thou  wast  the  first  to  give  thy  people  an  example,  an 

['  In  Polish,  Kock,  near  Warsaw.] 
20 


304  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

example  of  rejuvenated  heroism,  and  that  thou  hast  resuscitated 
the  image  of  those  men  of  valor  over  whom  in  days  gone  by  wept 
the  daughters  of  Zion. 

The  Polish  nation  remembered,  and  that  for  a  short  time 
only,  the  one  Berek;  but  the  thousands  of  his  oppressed 
brethren  were  forgotten.  The  only  way  in  which  the  gratitude 
of  the  "  fatherland "  manifested  itself  was  a  special  order 
of  the  Duke  granting  permission  to  Berek's  widow,  who  found 
it  difficult  to  live  and  bring  vip  her  children  on  her  scanty 
pension,  to  reside  in  the  streets  of  Warsaw  from  which  the 
Jews  were  barred,  and  "  to  engage  there  in  the  sale  of  liquor." 
Other  civil  privileges  the  Jews  could  not  hope  for,  even  by 
way  of  exception. 

This  state  of  affairs  could  not  very  well  inspire  the  Jewish 
population  with  a  great  love  for  military  service,  although  the 
Jews  had  been  graciously  permitted  to  discharge  it  in  per- 
son. With  few  exceptions,  the  Jews  preferred  to  pay  an 
additional  tax  rather  than  spill  their  blood  for  a  country 
which  offered  them  obligations  without  rights.  The  decree  of 
January  29,  1812,  legalized  this  substitution  of  personal  mili- 
tary service  by  a  monetary  ransom,  the  grand  total  of  which 
amounted  to  700,000  gulden  a  year. 

On  the  brink  of  destruction,  during  the  war  tempest  of  1812, 
the  Duchy  of  Warsaw  still  foimd  leisure  to  strike  an  economic 
blow  at  the  Jews.  At  the  suggestion  of  Minister  Lubenski,  a 
ducal  decree  was  issued  on  September  30  forbidding  the  Jews, 
after  the  lapse  of  two  years,  to  sell  liquor  and  keep  taverns, 
which  meant,  in  other  words,  that  tens  of  thousands  of  Jewish 
families  were  to  be  deprived  of  their  livelihood.  Secretly  the 
Government  justified  this  measure  by  the  impending  augmen- 
tation of  the  territory  of  the  Duchy  and  the  restoration  of  Old 


THE  PERIOD  OF  THE  PARTITIONS  305 

Poland,  where  strict  ecouomic  measures  were  necessary  to  keep 
the  returning  Jewish  population  in  bounds.  But  the  confi- 
dence reposed  in  the  power  of  Xapoleon  was  not  justified.  The 
idol  was  overthrown.  The  Duchy  of  Warsaw,  the  pale  specter 
of  an  independent  Poland,  vanished  into  air,  and  the  fate 
oi  the  country  again  lay  in  the  hands  of  the  three  Powers 
that  had  divided  it,  particularly  Russia.  The  millions  of  Jews 
in  Russian  Poland  were  well  aware  of  what  they  had  to  expect 
at  the  hands  of  their  new  rulers. 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE  BEGmmNGS  OF  THE  EUSSIAN  EEGIME 

1.  The  Jewish  Policy  of  Catherine  II.   (1772-1796) 

The  quarantine  which  Eussia,  prior  to  Catherine  II.,  had 
established  for  the  "  enemies  of  Christ,"  was  broken  through 
in  1772  by  the  first  partition  of  Poland.  At  one  stroke  the 
number  of  Eussian  subjects  was  swelled  by  the  huge  Jewish 
masses  of  White  Eussia.  The  Eussian  Empire  was  augmented 
by  a  new  province  adjoining  its  central  possessions,  and  to- 
gether with  the  new  region  and  its  variegated  population  it 
acquired  himdreds  of  thousands  of  subjects  of  the  kind  it  had 
hitherto  ruthlessly  driven  beyond  its  borders. 

What  was  to  be  done  with  the  unwelcome  heritage  be- 
queathed by  Poland?  The  primitive  policy  of  an  Elizabeth 
Petrovna  might  have  dictated  some  barbarous  measure, 
such  as  the  wholesale  expulsion  of  the  Jews  from  the  newly- 
acquired  territory.  But  the  statesmanlike  intellect  of  a  Cath- 
erine could  not,  during  the  formulation  of  the  liberal  "  Instruc- 
tions," *  admit  such  barbarism,  which  moreover  would  have  been 
incompatible  with  the  new  pledges  the  Eussian  Government 
had  found  it  necessary  to  give  to  the  heterogeneous  population 
of  White  Eussia  at  the  time  of  annexation.  In  the  "  Placard  " 
issued  on  this  occasion  by  Count  Chernyshev,  the  first  Gov- 
ernor-General   of   White    Eussia,    all    residents,    "  of    what- 

[*  In  1766  Catherine  convened  a  Commission,  consisting  of  repre- 
sentatives of  the  various  estates,  for  the  purpose  of  elaborating  a 
new  Russian  code  of  laws.  As  a  guide  for  this  Commission 
Catherine  wrote  her  famous  "Instructions"  (in  Russian  Nakaz), 
outlining  the  principles  of  government,  largely  in  the  spirit  of 
Montesquieu.] 


BEGINNINGS  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  REGIME  307 

ever  birth  and  calling/''  were  "  solemnly  assured  by  the  sacred 
name  and  word  of  the  Empress,"  that  their  religious  liberty 
as  well  as  their  personal  rights,  and  the  privileges  attaching 
to  property  and  estate,  would  remain  inviolate. 

This  *'  assurance  "  included  the  Jews,  though  not  without 
qualification,  as  is  shown  by  this  passage: 

From  the  aforesaid  solemn  assurance  of  the  free  exercise  of 
religion  and  the  inviolability  of  property  for  one  and  all,  it  follows 
of  itself  that  also  the  Jewish  communities  residing  in  the  cities 
and  territories  now  incorporated  into  the  Russian  Empire  will  be 
left  in  the  enjoyment  of  all  those  liberties  which  they  possess  at 
present,  in  accordance  with  the  [Russian]  law  and  [their  own] 
property.  For  the  humaneness  of  her  Imperial  Majesty  will  not 
allow  her  to  exclude  the  Jews  alone  from  the  grace  vouchsafed  to 
all  and  from  the  future  prosperity  under  her  beneficent  rule,  so 
long  as  they  on  their  part  shall  live  in  due  obedience  as  faithful 
subjects,  and  shall  limit  themselves  to  the  pursuit  of  genuine  trade 
and  commerce  according  to  their  callings. 

To  be  sure,  the  Jews,  in  contradistinction  to  the  rest  of  the 
population,  are  promised  the  high  Imperial  favor  on  condition 
of  "due  obedience."  Yet  the  inviolability  of  their  former 
rights  was  solemnly  guaranteed,  and  Eussian  politics  had 
henceforward  to  be  guided  by  it. 

Immediately  on  the  annexation  of  the  new  province  a  general 
census  was  ordered.  According  to  the  testimony  of  a  contem- 
porary, the  number  of  Jews  in  White  Kussia  was  found  to 
amount  to  over  forty  thousand  families,  about  two  hun- 
dred thousand  souls.  An  ukase  of  1772  imposed  upon  them  a 
per  capita  tax  of  one  rubel  (50c.).  The  annexed  territor}^ 
was  divided  into  two  Governments,  those  of  Moghilev  and  Po- 
lotzk,  or,  as  it  is  called  at  present,  Vitebsk.  In  the  interest 
of  the  regular  collection  of  taxes,  the  administration  from 


308  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

the  very  begiiiDing  gave  instructions  "  to  have  all  Jews 
affiliate  with  the  Kahals  and  to  institute  such  [Kahals]  as  the 
governors  may  suggest  or  as  necessity  for  them  may  arise/' 

The  problems  connected  with  the  inner  organization  of  the 
Jews  were  of  a  more  complicated  character.  Far-reaching 
changes  were  taking  place  at  that  time  in  the  provincial  and 
the  social  organization  of  the  Russian  Empire.  In  1775  was 
j)romulgated  the  "  Regulation  Concerning  the  Governments."  ' 
In  1785  was  issued  the  "  Act  Concerning  Municipal  Admin- 
istration,'* *  and  the  authorities  were  confronted  by  an  alter- 
native :  either  to  place  the  Jews  under  the  general  laws,  accord- 
ing to  the  estate  to  which  they  belonged  (in  the  cities  the 
mercantile  class,  the  burghers,  and  the  trade-unions),  or,  in 
view  of  their  peculiar  conditions  of  life  and  the  Kahal  autonomy 
inherited  from  Poland,  allow  them  to  retain  their  own  institu- 
tions as  part  of  their  communal  and  spiritual  self-government. 
It  was  a  difficult  problem,  and  Russian  legislation  at  first 
wavered  between  these  two  ways  of  solving  it,  with  the  result 
that  matters  became  muddled.     The  interference  of  the  local 

['  This  law  laid  the  foundation  for  the  division  of  the  Russian 
Empire  into  "  Governments,"  in  Russian  guhernia  (the  English 
term  is  a  reproduction  of  the  French  gouvernement) .  The  chief  of 
a  Government  is  called  Governor,  in  Russian,  Gubernator.  There 
are  also  a  few  Governors-General,  in  Russian,  Gheneral-Gubernator, 
placed  over  several  Governments,  mostly  on  the  borders  of  the 
Empire.] 

[=  According  to  this  new  law,  the  city  population  is  divided 
Into  merchants,  burghers,  and  artisans.  The  burghers — in  Rus- 
sian (also  in  Polish,  see  above,  p.  44,  n.  2),  myeshchanye — are 
placed  below  the  merchants.  The  former  are  those  possessing  less 
than  500  rubels  ($250) ;  they  have  to  pay  the  head-tax  and  are  sub- 
ject to  corporal  punishment.  The  merchants  are  those  who  have  a 
larger  capital,  and  are  privileged  in  the  two  directions  indicated. 
The  artisans  are  organized  in  their  trade-unions.  Each  estate  is 
registered  and  administered  separately.] 


BEGINNINGS  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  REGIME  309 

administration  and  the  old  rivalry  among  the  various  estates 
made  confusion  worse  confounded. 

The  ukase  issued  by  the  Senate  in  1776  sanctioned  the 
existence  of  the  Kahal,  regarding  it  primarily  as  a  fiscal  and 
legislative  institution,  which  the  Russian  administration  found 
convenient  for  its  purposes.  At  the  instance  of  Governor- 
General  Chernyshev,  the  Jews  of  White  Russia  were  set  apart  as 
a  separate  tax-unit  and  as  an  estate  of  their  own.  They  were 
to  be  entered  on  special  registers  in  the  towns,  townlets,  vil- 
lages, and  hamlets,  wherever  a  census  was  taken.  The  instruc- 
tions read  that 

in  order  that  their  taxes  may  be  more  regularly  remitted  to  the 
exchequer,  Kahals  shall  be  established  in  which  tliey  [the  Jews] 
shall  all  be  enrolled,  so  that  every  one  of  the  "  Zhyds," »  whenevei- 
he  shall  desire  to  travel  somewhere  on  business,  or  to  live  and 
settle  in  one  place  or  another,  or  to  take  anything  on  lease,  shall 
receive  a  passport  from  the  Kahal.  The  same  Kahal  shall  pay 
the  head-tax,  and  turn  it  over  to  the  provincial  exchequer. 

Thus,  as  regards  the  payment  of  taxes,  and  the  rights  not 
only  of  transit  but  also  of  business,  every  Jew  was  placed  in 
the  same  position  of  dependence  on  his  Kahal  as  under  the  old 
Polish  regime.  At  the  same  time  the  Kahal  was  endowed  with 
certain  judicial  functions.  District  and  Government  Kahals, 
the  latter  conceived  as  courts  of  appeal,  were  established  for 
cases  between  Jews,  each  of  these  Kahals  being  assigned  a 
definite  number  of  elective  judges.  Only  lawsuits  between 
Jews  and  non-Jews  were  to  be  brought  before  the  general 
magistracy  courts. 

But  a  few  years  later  the  Government  was  shaken  in  its 
resolve  to  uphold  the  former  Kahal  organization  to  its  full 

['  See  p.  320,  n.  2.] 


310  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

extent.  In  1782  an  inquiry  was  addressed  by  the  Senate  to  Pas- 
sek,  the  new  Governor-General  of  White  Eussia,  as  to  the  legal- 
ity of  establishing  special  Jewish  law  courts.  A  year  later  the 
Government  took  a  decided  step  in  the  opposite  direction.  It 
recognized  the  rights  of  Jews  registered  in  the  merchant  class 
to  participation  in  the  general  city  government,  to  elect  and  to 
be  elected  on  equal  terms  with  the  Christian  members  of  the 
magistracies,  town  councils,  and  municipal  courts.  The  reali- 
zation of  this  reform  was  greatly  hampered  by  the  opposition  of 
the  Christian  merchants  and  burghers,  who  hated  the  Jews, 
and  could  not  reconcile  themselves  to  the  municipal  equality 
of  their  competitors.  Having  accustomed  themselves  to  look 
down  upon  the  Jews  as  citizens  of  an  inferior  grade,  the 
Christian  city  officials  assumed  a  hostile  attitude  towards 
their  Jewish  colleagues  who  had  been  elected  to  public  posts, 
and  by  electioneering  methods  managed  to  reduce  their  num- 
bers in  the  city  corporations  to  a  minimum.  The  interests  of 
the  Jews  were  bound  to  suffer,  particularly  as  far  as  the 
administration  of  justice  was  concerned. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  administration  itself  began  to  oppress 
them.  The  liberal  Chernyshev  was  superseded  by  the  anti- 
Jewish  Passek,  who  did  his  utmost  to  restrict  the  Jews  in 
their  economic  activities,  to  the  obvious  advantage  of  their 
competitors  in  the  ranks  of  the  Shlakhta  and  the  Christian 
merchants. 

The  Jews — a  contemporary  who  had  himself  been  affected  by 
these  measures  informs  us — were  driven  from  their  breweries  and 
distilleries,  their  toll-houses,  hostelries,  etc.,  which  formed  their 
principal  means  of  livelihood.  Thousands  of  families  were  reduced 
to  beggary.  In  addition,  new  restrictions  were  introduced  affecting 
business,  handicrafts,  and  so  forth. 


BEGINNINGS  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  REGIME  311 

The  acuteuess  of  the  economic  and  social  crisis  among  the 
Jews  of  White  Russia  during  that  period  of  transition  is 
evidenced  by  the  petition  which  their  delegates  submitted  in 
1784  to  Catherine  II. 

The  petition,  consisting  of  six  points,  is  permeated  with  a 
profound  feeling  of  despair.  The  Jews  complain  that  the 
administration  has  deprived  them  completely  of  their  main 
sources  of  income:  distilling,  brewing,  and  liquor-selling  in 
the  cities.  They  furthermore  point  out  that  Governor-General 
Passek  has  forbidden  the  landed  proprietors  to  lease  the  inns 
on  their  estates  to  Jews,  and  that  in  consequence  a  large 
number  of  families,  who  depended  for  their  livelihood  on  some 
form  of  liquor-selling  and  innkeeping,  had  been  brought  to  the 
verge  of  ruin.  They  also  contend  that  the  Jews  had  not  reaped 
the  expected  benefits  from  the  equal  municipal  rights  conferred 
upon  them,  for  where  the  Jews  are  in  a  minority  not  a  single 
Jewish  candidate  is  admitted  to  a  municipal  or  judicial  office, 
"  so  that  whenever  a  Jew  goes  to  law  against  a  Christian, 
he  is  liable  to  become  the  victim  of  a  partial  verdict,  because 
there  is  no  coreligionist  to  intercede  on  his  behalf  in  the 
courts,  and  he  is  not  familiar  with  the  Russian  language." 
Their  further  grievances  relate  to  the  arbitrariness  of  the 
landed  proprietors,  who  "  from  sheer  caprice,  contrary  to 
agreement,"  impose  an  excessive  land  rent  on  the  Jews  who 
have  erected  houses  on  their  property,  so  that  they  are  forced 
to  abandon  their  houses.  Sometimes  houses  are  requisitioned 
for  Government  purposes,  or  are  torn  down  "  to  be  rebuilt  ac- 
cording to  [new  ofiicial  street]  plans,"  without  the  slightest 
compensation  to  their  owners.  The  magistracies,  on  the  other 
hand,  often  compel  the  Jews  who  are  domiciled  in  the  townlets 
and  villages,  but  are  enrolled  among  the  merchants  or  burghers 


312  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

of  some  city,  to  build  houses  in  that  city,  "  whereby  the  Jews 
are  liable  to  be  reduced  to  extreme  poverty,  inasmuch  as  by 
spending  their  capital  on  building  they  have  no  capital  where- 
with to  run  their  business." 

The  petition  was  received  by  the  Empress,  who,  in  forward- 
ing it,  in  1785,  to  the  Senate  for  consideration,  deemed  it 
necessary  to  indicate  her  general  attitude  in  the  following 
"  resolution  " : 

Her  Majesty  desires  to  have  it  pointed  out  that,  Inasmuch  as  the 
aforesaid  persons  of  the  Jewish  religion  have  been  placed  by  the 
ordinances  of  her  Majesty  in  the  same  position  as  the  others, 
it  is  necessary  in  every  case  to  observe  the  rule  that  everyone  is 
entitled  to  the  advantages  and  rights  appertaining  to  his  calling  or 
estate,  without  distinction  of  religion  or  nationality. 

The  Senate  had  to  comply  with  the  comprehensive  and 
liberal-minded  injunction  of  the  Empress  in  endeavoring  to 
solve  the  burning  problems  affecting  Jewish  life.  The  solution 
finally  arrived  at  was  a  feeble  compromise  between  the 
economic,  national,  and  class  interests  which  were  contradic- 
tory to  one  another.  In  its  ukase  of  May  7,  1786,  the  Senate 
partly  fulfilled  and  partly  declined  the  demands  of  the  White 
Russian  Jews.  The  right  of  pursuing  freely  the  liquor  trade 
in  the  cities  was  refused,  in  view  of  the  fact  that,  according 
to  the  new  law,  liquor-dealing  constituted  a  monopoly  of  the 
city  administration.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Jews  were  ac- 
corded the  riglits  of  participating  on  equal  terms  with  non- 
Jews  in  the  public  bids  for  the  lease  of  the  pothouses.  Pas- 
self's  rescript  forbidding  the  landowners  to  let  out  distilleries 
and  inns  to  the  Jews  was  declared  an  illegal  infringement  of 
the  rights  of  the  landowners,  and  therefore  ordered  to  be 
countermanded. 


BEGINNINGS  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  REGIME  313 

The  complicated  question  as  to  the  compatibility  of  muni- 
cipal self-government  with  Jewish  Kahal  autonomy  was 
equally  solved  by  a  compromise.  With  respect  to  the  magis- 
tracies, town  councils,  boards  of  aldermen,  and  law  courts,  the 
Jews  were  accorded  proportionate  representation  in  agree- 
ment with  the  general  provisions  of  the  new  city  government. 
The  common  municipal  courts,  in  which  Jews  were  to  be 
represented  by  elective  jurymen  of  their  own,  were  to  handle 
both  civil  and  criminal  cases,  not  only  between  persons  of 
different  denominations,  but  also  betwen  Jew  and  Jew.  The 
District  and  Government  Kahals  were  to  deal  with  spiritual 
affairs  only.  They  were  also  to  be  charged  with  the  distribution 
of  the  state  and  communal  taxes  in  the  various  Jewish  com- 
munities. 

As  for  the  complaints  of  the  Jews  against  the  oppres- 
sion of  the  administration  as  well  as  of  the  magistracies 
and  the  landowners,  all  the  Senate  did  was  to  point  to  the 
principle  by  which  all  the  members  of  a  given  estate  are 
equally  vouchsafed  the  rights  appertaining  to  it.  The  Senate 
even  went  so  far  as  to  bar  all  references  to  the  former  Polish 
laws  with  their  discriminations  against  the  Jews,  "  for,  inas- 
much as  they  [the  Jews]  are  enrolled  among  the  merchants  and 
burghers  on  the  same  terms,  and  pay  equal  taxes  to  the  exche- 
quer, they  ought  in  all  circumstances  to  be  given  the  same 
protection  and  satisfaction  as  the  other  subjects."  Yet  in 
tlie  very  same  ukase  the  Senate  refuses  to  grant  the  petition 
of  several  White  Russian  Jews  who  asked  to  be  enrolled  in  the 
merchant  corporation  of  Riga,  basing  its  refusal  on  the  absence 
of  a  special  Imperial  permit  allowing  the  Jews  to  register  as 
merchants  outside  of  White  Russian  territory. 


31-i  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

Here  we  have  the  fiiyt  application  of  the  ignoiuiuiouii  prin- 
ciple of  subsequent  Russian  legislation,  that  everything  is  for- 
bidden to  Jews  unless  permitted  by  special  law.  The  ukase  of 
1786,  with  all  its  liberal  phrases  about  the  equality  of  the  mem- 
bers of  all  classes  irrespective  of  religion,  imperceptibly  insti- 
tuted a  Pale  of  Settlement  by  attaching  the  Jews  to  definite 
localities,  which  had  been  wrested  from  Poland,  and  refusing 
them  the  right  of  residence  in  other  parts  of  Russia.  The  im- 
plied criticism  of  the  Senate,  directed  against  "  the  former 
Polish  laws  with  their  discriminations  against  the  Jews,"' 
could  with  far  greater  justice  be  leveled  in  much  sharper 
form  against  the  Russian  legislation  which  subsequently  cur- 
tailed the  Jewish  right  of  transit  and  commerce  to  an  extent 
undreamt-of  even  by  the  fiercest  anti-Jewish  restrictionists  of 
Poland. 

While  in  the  first  two  decades  after  the  occupation  of  White 
Russia  the  Russian  Government  observed  a  comparatively 
liberal,  at  least  a  well-intentioned,  attitude  towards  the  Jewish 
question,  in  later  years  it  openly  embarked  upon  a  policy  of 
exceptional  laws  and  restrictions.  The  general  reactionary 
tendency,  which  was  partly  the  result  of  the  "  ominous  "  suc- 
cesses of  the  great  French  Revolution,  and  gained  the  upper 
hand  in  Russia  towards  the  end  of  Catherine's  reign,  was  mir- 
rored also  in  the  position  of  the  Jews.  At  that  juncture  the 
second  and  third  partitions  of  Poland  (1793,  1795)  were 
effected,  and  hundreds  of  thousands  of  Jews  from  Lithuania, 
Volhynia,  and  Podolia  were  added  to  the  numbers  of  Russian 
subjects.  The  country,  which  barely  a  generation  before  had 
not  tolerated  a  single  Jew  within  its  borders,  now  included 
a  territory  more  densely  populated  by  Jew^s  than  any  other. 
Some  means  of  reconciliation  had  to  be  found  between  these 
historic  opposites,  the  traditional  anti-Jewish  policy  of  Russia, 


BEGINNINGS  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  REGIME  315 

on  the  one  hand,  and  the  presence  of  millions  of  Jews  within 
its  dominions,  on  the  other,  and  such  means  were  found  in 
that  system  of  Jewish  rightlessness  which  since  that  time  has 
become  one  of  the  principal  characteristics  of  the  political 
genius  of  Russian  autocracy.  The  ancient  Muscovite  policy 
peeped  out  with  ever  greater  boldness  from  beneath  the  Euro- 
pean mask  of  St.  Petersburg. 

On  the  very  eve  of  the  second  partition  of  Poland,  when  the 
Russian  Government  merely  anticipated  an  influx  of  Jews,  it 
had  a  fatal  gift  in  store  for  them :  the  law  of  the  Pale  of  Settle- 
ment, which  was  to  create  within  the  monarchy  of  peasant 
serfs  a  special  class  of  territorially  restricted  city  serfs.  It 
should  be  added  that  the  impulse  towards  the  creation  of  this 
disability  did  not  come  from  above  but  from  below,  from  the 
influential  Christian  middle  class,  which,  fearing  free  competi- 
tion, began  to  shout  for  protection. 

The  first  step  in  robbing  the  Jews  of  Russia  of  their  freedom 
of  movement  was  made  a  few  years  after  the  occupation  of 
White  Russia.  The  Jewish  merchants  of  the  White  Russian 
Governments  Moghilev  and  Polotzk  (or,  as  the  latter  is  called 
at  present,  Vitebsk)  which  border  on  the  Great  Russian  Gov- 
ernments of  Smolensk  and  Moscow,  began  to  visit  the  tAvo  cities 
of  the  same  name  and  carry  on  trade,  wholesale  and  retail,  in 
imported  dry  goods.  They  did  a  good  business,  for  the  Jewish 
merchants  sold  goods  of  a  higher  quality  at  a  lower  figure  than 
their  Christian  competitors.  This  set  the  merchants  of  Mos- 
cow agog,  and  in  February,  1790,  they  lodged  a  complaint  with 
the  commander-in-chief  of  Moscow  against  the  Jews  who  sell 
"  foreign  goods  by  lowering  the  current  prices,  and  thereby 
inflict  very  considerable  damage  upon  the  local  trade."  The 
complainants  point  to  the  ancient  tradition  of  the  Muscovite 


316  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

Empire  excluding  the  Jews  i'lom  its  borders,  and  a.--ui-e  the 
authorities  that  Jewish  rivalry  will  throw  the  trade  of  Moscow 
into  complete  "  disorder,"  and  bring  the  Russian  merchants 
to  the  verge  of  ruin. 

The  petition,  which  at  bottom  was  directed  not  alone  against 
the  Jews,  but  also  against  the  interests  of  the  Russian  con- 
sumer, who  was  exploited  by  the  "  real  Russian  "  trade  monop- 
olists, found  a  sympathetic  echo  in  Government  circles.  Ac- 
cordingly, in  the  autumn  of  tlie  same  year,  the  Council  of  Stat^, 
after  considering  the  counter-petition  of  the  Jews  asking  to  be 
enrolled  in  the  merchant  corporations  of  Smolensk  and  Mos- 
cow, rendered  the  decision  that  it  did  not  deem  it  expedient  to 
grant  the  Jews  the  right  of  free  commerce  in  the  inner  Rus- 
sian provinces,  because  "  their  admission  to  it  is  not  found  to 
be  of  any  benefit."  A  year  later  this  verdict  was  reaffirmed 
by  an  Imperial  ukase  issued  on  December  23,  1791,  to  the  effect 
that  "  the  Jews  have  no  right  to  enroll  in  the  merchant  corpor- 
ations in  the  inner  Russian  cities  or  ports  of  entry,  and  are  per- 
mitted to  enjoy  only  the  rights  of  townsmen  and  burghers  of 
White  Russia."  To  mitigate  the  severity  of  this  measure  the 
ukase  "  deemed  it  right  to  extend  the  said  privilege  beyond 
the  White  Russian  Government,  to  the  vice-royalty  of  Yeka- 
terinoslav  and  the  region  of  Tavrida,"  i.  e.  the  recently  annexed 
territory  of  New  Russia,  where  the  Government  was  anxious  to 
populate  the  lonely  steppes. 

In  this  way  the  first  territorial  ghetto,  that  of  White  Russia, 
was  established  by  law  for  the  purpose  of  harboring  the  Jew- 
ish population  taken  over  from  Poland.  When  again,  two 
years  later,  the  second  partition  of  Poland  took  place,  the 
northwestern  ghetto  was  increased  by  the  neighboring  Gov- 
ernment of  Minsk  and  the  southwestern   region — Volhynia 


BEGINNINGS  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  REGIME  317 

with  the  greater  part  of  the  Kiev  province  and  Podolia.  The 
ukase  of  June  23,  1794,  conferred  upon  this  enlarged  Pale 
of  Settlement  the  sanction  of  the  law.  The  Jews  were  granted 
the  right  "  to  engage  in  the  occupations  of  merchants  and 
burghers  in  the  Governments  of  Minsk,  Izyaslav  (subsequently 
Volhynia),  Bratzlav  (Podolia),  Polotzk  (now  Vitebsk), 
Moghilev,  Kiev,  Chernigov,  Novgorod-Seversk,  Yekaterinoslav, 
as  well  as  in  the  region  of  Tavrida."  The  ukase  thus  enlarges 
the  former  pale  of  Jewish  settlement  by  including  Little  Eussia, 
or  the  portion  of  the  Ukraina  which  had  been  wTCsted  from 
Poland  as  far  back  as  1654/ — in  short,  the  territory  from 
which  the  Jews  had  been  assiduously  driven  "  beyond  the 
border  "  in  the  reign  of  the  three  Empresses  preceding  Cath- 
erine. The  organic  connection  of  Little  Russia  with  the  por- 
tion of  the  Ukraina  on  the  right  bank  of  the  Dnieper  which 
had  just  been  annexed  from  Poland,  left  the  Russian  Govern- 
ment no  other  choice  than  to  allow  the  Jews  who  had  lived  in 
those  parts  from  time  immemorial  to  remain  there.  Even  the 
holy  city  of  Kiev  opened  its  gates  to  the  Jews.  The  Dnieper 
became  thereby  the  central  river  of  the  Jewish  Pale  of  Settle- 
ment. 

The  third  partition  of  Poland,  in  1795,  added  to  the  Dnieper 
system  that  of  the  Niemen,  the  territory  of  Lithuania^  con- 
sisting of  the  Governments  of  Grodno  and  Vilna.^  This  com- 
pleted the  process  of  formation  of  the  Pale  of  Settlement,  at 
the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century.  As  for  Eastern  Russia,  she 
was  just  as  vigilantly  on  her  guard  against  the  penetration  of 

*  It  consisted  of  the  Governments  of  Chernigov  and  Novgorod- 
Seversk  (subsequently  Poltava)  and  a  part  of  the  Grovernment  of 
Kiev. 

['  The  present  Government  oi  Kovno  was  constituted  as  late  as 
1872.  Its  territory  was  up  till  then  included  in  the  Government  of 
Vilna.] 


318  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

the  Jewish  element  as  she  had  been  in  the  time  of  the  ancient 
Muscovite  Empire. 

The  same  ukase  of  1794,  which  circumscribed  the  area  of 
the  Jewish  right  of  residence,  laid  down  another  fundamental 
discrimination,  that  of  taxation.  The  Jews,  desirous  of  en- 
rolling themselves  in  the  mercantile  or  burgher  class  in  the 
cities,  were  to  pay  the  instituted  taxes  "  doubly  in  comparison 
with  those  imposed  on  the  burghers  and  merchants  of  the 
Christian  religion,"  Those  Jews  who  refused  to  remain  in  the 
cities  on  these  conditions  were  to  leave  the  Eussian  Empire 
after  paying  a  fine  in  the  form  of  a  double  tax  for  three  years. 
In  this  way  the  Government  exacted  from  the  Jews,  for  the 
privilege  of  remaining  in  their  former  places  without  the  right 
of  free  transit  in  the  Empire,  taxes  twice  as  large  as  those  of 
the  Christian  townspeople  enjoying  the  liberty  of  transit.  This 
punitive  tax  did  not  relieve  the  Jews  from  the  special  military 
assessment,  which,  by  the  ukases  of  1794  and  1796,  they  had 
to  pay,  like  the  Eussian  mercantile  class  in  general,  in  exchange 
for  the  personal  discharge  of  military  service. 

It  is  interesting  to  observe  that  at  the  solicitation  of  Count 
Zubov,  the  Governor-General  of  New  Eussia,  the  Karaites  of  the 
Government  of  Tavrida  were  released  from  the  double  tax. 
They  were  also  granted  permission  to  own  estates,  and  were 
in  general  given  equal  rights  with  the  Christian  population, 
"  on  the  understanding,  however,  that  the  community  of  Ka- 
raites should  not  be  entered  by  the  Jews  known  by  the  name  of 
Eabins  (Eabbanites),  concerning  whom  the  laws  enacted  by  us 
are  to  be  rigidly  enforced  "  (ukase  of  June  8,  1795).  Here  the 
national-religious  motive  of  the  anti-Jewish  legislation  crops 
out  unmistakably.     The  handful  of  Karaites,  who  had  for 


BEGINNINGS  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  REGIME  319 

centuries  lived  a])art  from  the  Jewish  nation  and  its  spiritual 
possessions,  were  declared  to  be  more  desirable  citizens  of  the 
monarchy  than  the  genuine  Jews,  who  were  on  the  contrary  to 
be  cowed  by  repressive  measures. 

A  decided  bent  in  favor  of  such  measures  is  manifested  in 
the  ukase  of  1795,  which  prescribes  that  the  Jews  living  in  vil- 
lages ho  registered  in  the  towns,  and  that  "  endeavors  be  made 
to  transfer  them  to  the  District  towns,  so  that  these  people 
may  not  wander  about,  but  may  rather  engage  in  commerce 
and  promote  manufactures  and  handicrafts,  thereby  further- 
ing their  own  interests  as  well  as  the  interests  of  society." 
'I'he  effect  of  this  ukase  was  to  sanction  by  law  the  long-estab- 
lished arbitrary  practice  of  the  local  authorities,  who  fre- 
quently expelled  the  Jews  from  the  villages,  and  sent  them  to 
the  towns  under  the  pretext  that  Jews  could  be  enrolled  only 
among  the  toM^nsfolk.  The  expelled  families,  deprived  of  all 
means  of  livelihood,  were  of  course  completely  ruined,  as  the 
mere  bidding  of  the  authorities  did  not  suffice  to  enable  them 
"  to  engage  in  commerce  and  promote  manufactures  and  handi- 
crafts "  in  the  towns  in  which  even  the  resident  merchants  and 
artisans  failed  to  make  a  living.  The  system  of  official  tutelage 
had  the  effect  of  fettering  instead  of  developing  the  economic 
activity  of  the  Jews. 

Experiments  were  now  made  to  extend  this  tutelage  to  the 
communal  self-government  of  the  Jews.  In  1795  the  edict  was 
repeated  whereby  the  Government  and  District  Kahals,  in  view 
of  the  right,  conferred  upon  the  Jews,  of  participating  in  the 
general  city  administration,  in  the  magistracies  and  town  coun- 
cils, were  to  be  deprived  of  their  social  and  judicial  functions, 
and  not  to  be  allowed  "  to  concern  themselves  with  any  affairs 
21 


320  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

except  the  ceremonies  of  religion  and  divine  service."  *  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  the  active  participation  of  the  Jews  in  the 
municipalities,  owing  to  the  hostile  attitude  of  the  Christian 
burghers,  was  extremely  feeble.  Yet,  in  the  interest  of  the 
exchequer,  the  Kahals  were  preserved  for  fiscal  purposes,  and, 
on  account  of  their  financial  usefulness,  they  continued  to 
function  as  the  organs  of  Jewish  communal  autonomy,  how- 
ever curtailed  and  disorganized  the  latter  had  now  become. 

In  this  wi^e  the  restrictive  legislation  against  the  Jews  ap- 
pears firmly  established  towards  the  end  of  the  reign  of 
Catherine  II.  A  "  Muscovite  "  wall  had  been  raised  between 
the  west  and  east  of  Russia,  and  even  within  the  circumscribed 
area  of  Jewish  settlement  the  tendency  was  discernible  to  mark 
off  a  still  smaller  area  and,  by  forcing  the  Jews  out  of  the 
villages,  to  compress  the  Jewish  masses  in  the  towns  and  cities. 
It  fell  to  the  lot  of  the  successors  of  Catherine  to  consolidate 
this  tendency  into  law. 

In  conclusion,  the  historian  cannot  pass  over  in  silence  the 
solitary  "  reform  "  of  this  period.  In  the  legislative  enactments 
of  the  last  decade  of  Catherine's  reign  the  formerly  current 
contemptuous  appellation  "  Zhyd  "  gave  way  to  the  name  "  He- 
brew "  (Yevrey).'  The  Russian  Government  found  it  imposs- 
ible to  go  beyond  this  verbal  reform. 

^  This  was  in  direct  violation  of  the  pledge  given  by  the  Russian 
Government  at  the  occupation  of  the  Polish  provinces.  As  recently 
as  in  January  of  the  same  year  (1795)  the  Lithuanian  Governor- 
General  Repnin  had  replied  to  the  application  of  the  Lithuanian 
Jews,  who  pleaded  for  the  maintenance  of  the  Kahal  tribunal,  that 
the  Jews  "  may  retain  the  same  rights  they  had  been  enjoying  prior 
to  the  last  [Polish]  mutiny  [of  1794]." 

[-  Zhyd,  originally  the  Slavic  form  of  the  Latin  Judaeus,  has 
assumed  in  Russian  a  derogatory  connotation.  It  is  interesting  to 
note  that  in  Polish  the  same  word  has  no  unpleasant  meaning, 
although  in  polite  speech  other  terms  are  used.] 


BEGINNINGS  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  REGIME  33I 

2.  Jewish  Legislative  Schemes  during  the 
Reign  of  Paul  I. 

The  brief  reign  of  Paul  I.  (1796-1801)  added  nothing  of 
moment  to  the  Russian  legislation  concerning  the  Jews.  The 
law  imposing  a  double  tax  was  confirmed,  and  also  the  other 
restrictions  were  left  in  force.  The  area  of  Jewish  settlement 
was  increased  by  the  newly-acquired  Government  of  Courland, 
on  the  outskirts  of  the  Empire.  In  this  Duchy,  which  was  an- 
nexed in  1795,  there  were  several  thousand  Jewish  inhabitants, 
wiio  had  been  "  tolerated  "  as  foreigners,  after  the  German  pat- 
tern, and  had  only  partly  succeeded  in  forming  a  communal 
organization.  The  question  now  arose  as  to  the  best  way  of 
collecting  the  taxes  from  the  itinerant  chapmen  who  formed 
the  bulk  of  the  Jewish  population,  and  M'ere  enrolled  neither 
among  the  rural  nor  the  urban  estates,  and  were  not  even 
alliliated  with  Jewish  communities.  The  Russian  Government 
solved  this  question  in  1799,  by  placing  the  Jews  of  Courland 
in  the  same  position  as  their  coreligionists  in  the  other  western 
Governments,  and  by  granting  them  the  right  of  enrolling 
themselves  among  the  mercantile  or  burgher  estates,  as  well 
as  establishing  their  own  Kahals.  In  this  case  fiscal  considera- 
tions were  responsible  for  the  organization  of  the  Jewish  masses 
in  the  dominion  of  the  German  barons. 

Having  confined  the  Jewish  population  within  the  western 
pale,  the  Government  could  not  very  well  hamper  its  freedom 
of  transit  within  that  pale,  at  least  as  far  as  moving  from  city 
to  city  was  concerned.  This  elementary  right  of  free  transit 
was  resorted  to  by  many  Jews  of  impoverished  White  Russia, 
who  began  to  emigrate  into  the  Little  Russian  provinces,  par- 
ticularly into  the  Government  of  Novgorod-Seversk,  later  the 
Government  of  Poltava,  which  were  more  prosperous,  and  less 


322  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

crowded  with  Jews.  The  Government  became  aware  of  this 
internal  transmigration,  and  could  not  abstain  from  takmg 
it  under  its  fatherly  protection.  Merchants  were  allowed  to 
move  unhampered  from  White  Russia  into  Little  Russia. 
Burghers,  however,  were  permitted  to  emigrate  only  on  the 
conditions  applying  to  all  persons  of  the  taxable  estates^ 
they  had  to  obtain  certificates  of  dismissal  (December,  1796). 

Poor  as  was  the  reign  of  Paul  in  the  field  of  concrete  legisla- 
tion concerning  the  Jews,  it  was  rich  in  preliminary  endeavors 
leading  up  to  it.  For  his  reign  abounds  in  all  kinds  of  projects 
looking  to  the  regulation  of  the  status  of  the  Jews  on  the  basis 
of  olTicial  "  investigations."  In  the  outgoing  years  of  the 
eighteenth  century  (1797-1800)  the  Government  ofiices  were 
feverishly  busy  in  this  direction.  The  Government  was  endeav- 
oring to  familiarize  itself  with  the  state  of  the  former  Polish 
provinces  and  particularly  with  the  condition  of  the  Jewish 
population.  The  first  step  in  this  pursuit  after  knowledge 
consisted  in  sending  out  a  circular  inquiry  to  the  nobles  and 
the  higher  officials  of  the  region  under  consideration.  The 
stimulus  to  this  inquiry  came  in  1797,  from  a  report  submitted 
on  account  of  the  famine  which  had  been  raging  in  the  Govern- 
ment of  Minsk.  Governor  Karnyeyev  of  Minsk  received 
orders  from  St.  Petersburg  to  gather  the  opinions  of  the  local 
Marshals,  or  leaders  of  the  nobility,  and  on  that  basis  supply 
"  an  elucidation  of  the  causes  of  the  impoverished  condition  of 
the  peasants,"^  with  plans  looking  to  their  amelioration. 

The  shrewd  device  of  questioning  the  landed  aristocrats  as  to 
the  causes  of  the  impoverishment  of  their  peasant  serfs  bore 
worthy  fruit.  Needless  to  say,  the  Polish  magnates  who 
assembled  in  Minsk  at  the  invitation  of  the  Government  did 
not  even  for  a  moment  think  of  reproaching  themselves  and 


BEGINNINGS  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  REGIME  333 

their  owu  estate  of  slaveholders  for  the  misery  of  the  people 
enthralled  by  them.  Instead  they  preferred  to  put  the  blame 
partly  on  external  circumstances  ("  the  changes  and  mutinies 
in  the  province,"  bad  crops,  poor  means  of  communication, 
etc.),  and  partly  on  the  Jews,  "whom  the  owners  [of  the 
villages]  retain  as  arendars  and  tavern-keepers,  contrary  to  the 
orders  of  the  authorities  restricting  their  domicile  to  the 
cities."  The  Jewish  tavern-keepers  in  the  coimtry,  so  the 
nobles  allege,  "lure  the  peasants  into  drunkenness,"  by  selling 
them  spirits  on  trust,  and  thereby  "  render  them  unfit  to 
manage  their  affairs."  In  order  to  save  the  peasants,  the  Gov- 
ernment sliould  insist  "  that  the  right  of  distilling  be  open 
exclusively  to  the  landowners,  and  be  withheld  from  the  Jews 
as  well  as  other  arendars  and  tavern-keepers,"  and  that  in  the 
rural  public  houses  "  permission  to  sell  hot  wine  [whiskey] 
be  given  only  to  the  squires."  To  put  it  in  other  words,  the 
peasants  will  thrive  and  be  "  fit  to  manage  their  affairs,"  if, 
instead  of  Jewisli  alcohol,  they  will  imbibe  the  aristocratic 
alcohol  of  the  landed  proprietors. 

One  need  not  be  a  statesman  to  discover  the  underlying 
motive  of  this  "  opinion  "  of  the  nobles,  who  were  concerned 
only  about  retaining  the  ancient  alcohol  monopoly  which  they 
had  enjoyed  under  the  Polish  regime  ("  the  right  of  propi- 
nation").  This,  however,  did  not  prevent  the  Governor  of 
Minsk  from  presenting  the  report  of  the  nobility  to  the  Tzar, 
who  on  July  28,  1797,  put  down  the  following  "  resolution  '*: ' 
"  Measures  are  to  be  taken,  in  accordance  with  the  proposals  of 
the  marshals  of  the  nobility,  to  restrict  the  rights  of  the  Jews 
who  ruin  the  peasants."  At  the  same  time  the  Senate  called  the 
Governor's  attention  to  Catherine's  ukase  ordering  the  trans- 

[' See  p.  253.  n.  1;  for  "  propination  "  see  p.  67,  n.  2.] 


32i  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

fer  of  the  Jews  to  the  District  towns,  "  so  that  these  people 
may  not  wander  to  and  fro  to  the  detriment  of  society."  This 
was  tantamount  to  giving  the  authorities  carte  blanche  in 
expelling  the  Jews  from  the  villages. 

In  1798  came  the  turn  of  the  nobility  of  the  Southwest,  of 
Volhynia  and  Podolia,  to  state  their  wishes  for  the  benefit  of 
the  fatherland.  The  marshals  of  Podolia,  who  met  at  Kame- 
netz,  elaborated  a  much  more  comprehensive  scheme  of  reform 
than  their  compeers  in  Minsk.  After  expressing  their  grati- 
tude to  the  Tzar  "  for  his  Imperial  benevolence  in  leaving  us 
the  franchise  of  liquor-dealing,"  the  nobles  plead  that  "  neither 
the  right  of  distilling  nor  that  of  selling  liquor  be  let  to  Jews 
or  even  to  Christians,"  and  that  the  nobles  themselves  be 
granted  the  "  liberty  "  of  employing  people  in  their  "  public 
houses  at  their  own  discretion."  After  securing  the  monopoly 
of  intoxicating  the  people  through  their  own  bartenders,  the 
nobles  propose  to  transform  the  bulk  of  the  Jews  into  export 
agents,  to  find  foreign  markets  for  the  agrarian,  i.  e.  manorial, 
products,  "  whence  commercial  profits  will  accrue  both  to  the 
tillers  of  the  soil  (?!)  and  to  the  nobles."  As  for  the  other 
Jews,  part  of  them  were  to  be  retained  by  the  landowners  in 
their  public  houses,  and  the  rest  were  "  to  be  forced  to  engage 
in  agriculture  and  handicrafts." 

This  brilliant  prospect  of  becoming  the  tools  of  the  nobles 
for  the  disposal  of  rural  products  and  the  sale  of  manorial 
alcohol  had  evidently  little  fascination  for  the  Jews  themselves. 
Alarmed  by  these  aristocratic  designs,  they  held  a  consultation, 
and  even  called  a  conference  of  delegates.  The  conference  met 
in  Ostrog  (Volhynia)  in  the  summer  of  1798,  and  decided  to 
collect  a  fund  and  send  a  deputation  to  St.  Petersburg,  to 
lay  before  the  Tzar  the  needs  and  wishes  of  the  Jews  of  the 


BEGINNINGS  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  REGIME  325 

Southwest,  whom  the  Government  had  entirely  forgotten  to  ask 
how  they  themselves  would  like  to  have  their  affairs  arranged. 
Unfortunately  the  Governor-General  of  the  Southwest,  Count 
Gudovicli,  "  got  wind  "  of  these  preparations.  Far-sighted 
statesman  that  he  w^as,  he  immediately  suspected  "  that  this 
collection  [of  money  for  the  deputation]  might  merely  serve 
as  a  cover  for  some  wicked  Jewish  design."'  He  accordingly 
confiscated  the  funds  already  secured,  forbade  all  further  col- 
lections, and  hastened  to  report  his  achievement  to  St.  Peters- 
burg. To  his  astonishment,  the  overzealous  Governor-General 
received  the  chilling  reply,  that  the  Tzar  found  nothing  crim- 
inal in  the  desire  of  the  Jews  to  send  a  deputation  to  him. 
At  the  same  time  he  was  instructed  to  return  the  con ii seated 
money  and  not  to  interfere  with  the  sending  of  the  deputation 
(September,  1798).  Whether  the  deputation  actually  pro- 
ceeded to  the  capital,  and  what  it  achieved,  is  imknown.  But 
the  occurrence  in  itself  bears  witness  to  the  fact  that  even  in 
that  unenlightened  epoch  and  in  the  secluded  Hasidic  en- 
vironment of  Volhynia  and  Podolia,  the  Jews  were  not  alto- 
gether insensible  of  the  political  and  social  upheavals  which 
were  taking  place  in  Eussia. 

The  last  to  respond  to  the  Governmental  inquiry  was  the 
nobility  of  Lithuania.  The  marshals  of  the  nineteen  Lithu- 
anian districts,  who  met  in  1800,  submitted  their  "opinion," 
which  had  been  adopted  with  only  three  dissenting  votes,  to 
Friesel,  the  Governor  of  Vilna.  The  three  opposing  marshals 
suggested  leaving  the  Jews  in  the  condition  which  had  pre- 
vailed under  the  Polish  regime.  All  the  others  drafted  a  plan 
of  Jewish  "  reform,''  which  was  even  more  radical  than  that 
of  the  nobles  of  Minsk  and  Podolia.  The  Jews  were  to  be 
barred  not  only  from  distilling  and  keeping  taverns  of  their 


326  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

own,  but  also  from  the  sale  of  spirits  iu  the  uianorial  public 
houses,  'i'he  Jewish  rural  population,  which  would  thus  be 
deprived  of  all  means  of  subsistence,  was  to  be  transferred 
partly  to  the  cities,  partly  "  to  be  scattered  over  the  crown 
and  manorial  settlements,  where  they  might  be  allowed  to 
grow  corn  and  to  mortgage  and  farm  estates."  The  economic 
reform  was  to  be  supplemented  by  one  affecting  the  inner  life 
of  the  Jews.  It  was  necessary  "  to  abolish  the  Jewish  costume 
and  introduce  among  the  Jews  the  form  of  dress  customary 
among  the  other  inhabitants."  Altogether  the  separateness  of 
the  Jews  was  to  be  broken  down,  for  "  they  constitute  a  people 
by  themselves,  and  as  such  have  their  own  administration  .  .  . 
in  the  form  of  synagogues  and  Kahals,  which  not  only  arro- 
gate to  themselves  spiritual  authority,  but  also  meddle  in  all 
civil  affairs  and  in  matters  appertaining  to  the  police."  These 
measures  would  bring  about  the  amalgamation  of  the  Jews 
with  the  surrounding  population. 

The  "  reformatory "  ardor  of  the  Lithuanian  nobles,  who 
thought  it  necessary  to  bracket  the  problem  of  Kahal  auton- 
omy with  the  sale  of  alcohol,  was  the  effect  of  outside  inter- 
ference. Friesel,  the  Governor  of  Vilna,  who  was  a  cultivated 
German,  and  as  such  was  acquainted  with  the  state  of  the 
Jewish  problem  in  Germany,  foimd  it  necessary  to  address 
himself  to  the  Lithuanian  marshals  twice,  their  first  state- 
ment ha\  iug  been  found  "  unsatisfactory."  Only  a  second 
revision  of  the  views  of  the  nobles,  which  included  the  plan  of 
inner  reforms,  satisfied  Friesel.  In  April,  1800,  Friesel  for- 
warded these  recommendations  to  the  Senate,  accompanying 
them  by  his  own  comprehensive  memorandum,  which  to  a  large 
extent  was  obviously  based  on  Chatzki's  and  Butrymovich's 


BEGINNINGS  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  REGIME  397 

projcctii  submitted  some  ten  years  previously  to  the  "  Jewish 
Jommission  "  of  the  Quadrennial  Diet. 

Friesel  urges  the  necessity  of  a  "  general  reform,"  and 
professes  to  take  Western  Europe  as  a  model,  but  all  he 
adopted  thence  was  the  most  objectionable  tactics  of  "  en- 
lightened absolutism."  In  liis  opinion  "  the  education  of 
the  Jewish  people  must  begin  with  their  religion."  It  is 
necessary  "  to  wipe  out  all  Jewish  sects  with  their  super- 
stitions and  to  forbid  strictly  the  introduction  of  any  inno- 
vations whereby  impostors  might  seduce  the  masses  and 
plunge  them  into  ever  greater  ignorance,"  a  veiled  allusion  to 
tlic  Hasidim  and  in  particular  to  their  Tzaddiks,  whose  strife 
with  the  anti-Hasidic  rabbis  was  engaging  the  attention  of  the 
Russian  Government  at  the  time.  He  further  recommends 
that  the  Jews  be  forced  to  send  their  children  to  the  Govern- 
ment schools,  to  conduct  all  their  business  in  Polish,  to  wear 
the  customary  non-Jewish  form  of  dress,  and  not  to  marry 
l)prore  the  age  of  twenty.  Finally  the  Jews  are  to  be  classified 
in  three  categories,  merchants,  artisans,  and  tillers  of  the  soil, 
these  three  estates  to  form  part  of  the  general  class  stratifica- 
tion of  the  Empire.  In  this  way  the  fiscal  services  of  the 
Kahals  could  be  dispensed  with,  and  the  Kahals  themselves 
would  pass  out  of  existence  automatically. 

The  suggestions  of  the  loaders  of  the  nobility  as  well  as  the 
proposals  of  the  governors  were  turned  over  in  the  spring  of 
1800  to  the  Senate,  whose  function  was  to  examine  and  utilize 
them  for  a  new  legal  enactment  or  "  statute."  Here  they  hap- 
pened to  fall  into  the  hands  of  one  of  the  Senators,  Gabriel 
Dyerzhavin,  the  celebrated  Russian  poet,  who  by  the  whim  of 
fate  was  soon  to  blossom  forth  into  a  "  specialist "  in  rebus 
Judaicis. 


328  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

3.  Dyebzhavin's  "  Opinion  "  on  the  Jewish  Prokle:m 

Dyerzhavin  was  born  in  one  of  the  remote  eastern  provinces 
of  Eussia,  and  spent  the  greater  part  of  his  life  in  the  Govern- 
ment offices  of  St.  Petersburg.  He  had  never  come  in  con- 
tact with  the  Jewish  population,  until,  in  1799,  he  was  dis- 
patched to  the  little  town  of  Shklov  in  White  Russia,  to 
look  into  the  case  of  the  owner  of  the  town,  a  retired  general 
by  the  name  of  Zorich,  The  latter  had  been  one  of  the 
favorites  of  Catherine,  and  lived  the  fast  and  extravagant 
life  of  a  Eussian  country  squire  in  the  town  which  was  liis 
private  property.  His  typically  Eussian  devil-may-care  con- 
duct was  not  calculated  to  spare  the  large  Jewish  population 
of  the  town.  Zorich  evidently  fancied  that  the  Jews  living 
on  his  land  were  just  as  much  his  serfs  as  were  the  peasants, 
and  he  handled  them  in  the  way  serfs  were  dealt  with  in  those 
days.  He  expelled  several  of  them  from  the  town,  and  seized 
their  houses.  Others  he  beat  with  his  own  hands,  and  still 
others  he  forced  to  supply  him  with  drink  free  of  charge.  The 
Jews  appealed  to  the  Government  against  this  attempt  to  turn 
them  into  serfs,  and  it  was  in  response  to  their  appeal  that 
Emperor  Paul  dispatched  Senator  Dyerzhavin,  with  in- 
structions to  curb  the  violence  of  the  boisterous  squire. 
Dyerzhavin,  who  was  imbued  with  the  spirit  of  serfdom, 
could  not  but  take  a  mild  view  of  the  high-handed  methods 
of  Zorich,  and  came  to  the  conclusion  that  the  Jews  were 
partly  to  blame  for  the  disorders  that  had  taken  place.  The 
death  of  Zorich  in  1800  put  a  stop  to  the  case,  but  theoretically 
the  Senate  decided  that,  according  to  Eussian  law,  the  Jews, 
by  virtue  of  their  being  members  of  the  merchant  and  burgher 
class,  could  not  be  regarded  as  serfs  even  in  the  towns  and  set- 
tlements owned  by  squires. 


BEGINNINGS  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  REGIME  ^-nj 

A  year  later  Dyerzliavin  was  again  dispatched  to  White 
Russia,  this  time  invested  with  very  large  powers.  The  prov- 
ince was  in  the  throes  of  a  terrible  famine,  brought  about  not 
onl}''  by  bad  crops  but  also  by  the  outrageous  conduct  of  the 
landed  proprietors.  These  gentlemen,  instead  of  supplying 
their  peasants  with  foodstuffs,  preferred  to  send  large  quantities 
of  grain  either  abroad,  for  sale,  or  into  their  distilleries,  for 
the  production  of  whiskey,  which,  instead  of  feeding  the 
peasants,  poisoned  them.  In  dispatching  Dyerzliavin  to  White 
Russia,  Emperor  Paul  gave  him  full  power  to  put  a  stop  to 
these  abuses  and  to  inflict  severe  penalties  on  the  squires, 
who,  "  moved  by  unexampled  greed,  leave  their  peasants 
without  assistance."  They  were  to  be  dispossessed,  and 
their  estates  placed  under  state  control  (June  16,  1800).  In 
a  supplementary  instruction  added  by  the  Procurator-General 
of  the  Senate,  Obolanin,  the  following  clause  was  added : 
"  And  whereas,  according  to  information  received,  the  exhaus- 
tion of  the  White  Russian  peasants  is  to  a  rather  considerable 
extent  caused  b}^  the  Zhyds,  it  is  his  Majesty's  wish  that  your 
Excellency  may  give  particular  attention  to  their  part  in  it 
and  submit  an  opinion  how  to  avert  the  general  damage  in- 
flicted by  them."  This  unmistakably  anti-Semitic  postscript, 
to  which  Dyerzliavin  was  in  all  likelihood  a  party,  to  which 
at  all  events  he  gave  his  approval,  was  designed  to  mitigate  the 
blow  aimed  at  the  squires  and  turn  it  against  the  Jews.  '^I'he 
conspiracy  of  these  two  bureaucrats,  who  believed  in  serfdom 
and  sided  with  the  squires,  put  an  altogether  different  com- 
plexion on  Dyerzhavin's  mission. 

The  pacification  of  White  Russia  was  speedily  accomplished. 
Dyerzliavin  placed  the  estate  of  one  Polish  magnate  under  state 
control,  and  personally  closed  up  a  Jewish  distillery  in  the 


330  THE  JEWS  IN   RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

town  of  Lozno,  the  residoiiec  of  the  famous  Hasidic  Tzaddik, 
Rabbi  Zalman  Shnoorsohn.  He  proceeded  with  such  energy  that 
oue  Jewish  woman  complained  of  having  received  blows  at  his 
hands.  After  having  "  installed  order/'  Dyerzhavin  set  out  to 
do  what  he  considered  to  be  his  main  task — prepare  an 
elaborate  memorandum  concerning  the  Jews,  under  the  char- 
acteristic title,  ''  Opinion  of  Senator  Dyerzhavin  Concerning 
the  Averting  of  the  Want  of  Foodstuffs  in  White  Russia  by 
Curbing  the  Avaricious  Pursuits  of  the  Jews,  also  Concerning 
Their  Ee-education,  and  Other  Matters." 

The  very  title  betrays  the  underlying  motive  of  the  writer, 
to  make  the  Jews  the  scapegoat  for  the  economic  ruin  of 
the  province,  in  which  the  squires  had  always  been  the  masters 
of  the  situation.  But  Dyerzhavin  did  not  confine  himself  to 
the  evaluation  of  the  economic  activity  of  the  Jews.  He  was 
no  less  anxious  to  depict  their  inner  life,  their  beliefs,  their 
training  and  education,  their  communal  institutions,  their 
"moral  situation."  For  all  these  purposes  he  drew  upon  a 
multitude  of  sources.  While  writing  his  memorandum  in 
Vitebsk,  in  the  fall  of  1800,  he  gathered  information  about 
the  Jews  from  the  local  anti- Jewish  merchants  and  burghers, 
and  from  the  "  scientific  "  instructors  at  the  Jesuit  College  in 
the  same  city,  in  the  court-houses,  and — from  "  the  very  Cos- 
sacks themselves." 

It  must  be  added  that  Dyerzliavin  also  had  in  his  possession 
two  projects  from  the  pen  of  "  enlightened  Jews."  The 
author  of  one  of  them,  ^ota  Shklover  by  name,  a  wealthy  mer- 
chant, who  had  served  as  purveyor  to  Potemkin's  army,  and, 
living  at  that  time  in  St.  Petersburg,  knew  the  drift  of 
opinion  in  Government  circles,  proposed  to  attract  the  Jews 
to  manufacturing,  which  should  be  introduced,  in  connection 


BEGINNINGS  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  REGIME  33I 

with  agriculture  and  cattle-breeding,  into  coloniea  set  apart 
for  this  purpose  **  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  Black  Sea  ports.'' 
The  originator  oi'  the  second  project,  a  physician  from  Kres- 
lavka,  in  the  Government  of  Vitebsk,  by  the  name  of  Frank, — 
evidently  a  German  Jew  of  the  Mendelssohnian  type — suggested 
that  the  Government  through  Dyerzhavin  focus  its  attention 
on  the  reform  of  the  Jewish  religion,  which  "  in  its  original 
purity  rested  on  unadulterated  Deism  and  the  postulates  of 
pure  morality,"  but  in  the  course  of  time  was  distorted  by  "  the 
absurdities  of  the  Talmud."  Frank  accordingly  proposes  to 
follow  the  example  set  by  Mendelssohn  in  Germany,  to  throw 
open  the  Eussian  public  schools  to  the  Jews,  and  to  teach  their 
children  Eussian,  German,  and  Hebrew,  implying  of  course 
that  the  Jew  thus  educated  will  not  fail  to  prove  himself  of 
unquestionable  benefit  to  the  country. 

Aside  from  these  projects,  Dyerzhavin  had  before  him 
specimens  of  several  Prussian  J uden-Reglements,  as  well  as 
the  recommendations  of  the  marshals  and  governors  of  West- 
ern Eussia  referred  to  above,  and  similar  documents.'  This 
material  sufficed  for  the  Eussian  official,  who  had  caught  no 
more  than  a  fleeting  glimpse  of  the  Jews  while  passing  through 
White  Eussia,  to  elaborate  a  most  comprehensive  "  Opinion  " 
demanding  a  complete  transformation  of  Jewish  life. 

The  somber  picture  which  Dyerzhavin  draws  of  the  life  of 
the  Jews  suffices  to  show  how  superficial  was  his  acquaintance 

'  Dyerzhavin's  statement,  that  he  had  "  borrowed  his  principal 
ideas  from  Prussian  institutions,"  refers  in  all  likelihood  to  the 
well-known  Prussian  Jiiden-Reglement  fiir  l^did-und-yeuostpreus- 
se.n  of  1797,  which  was  at  that  time  operative  in  the  whole  of 
Prussian  Poland.  There  are  numerous  points  of  contact  between 
Dyerzhavin's  project  and  the  Prussian  enactment.  The  latter  may 
be  found  in  the  work  of  Ronne  and  Simon,  YerhuUnisse  der  Juden 
in  den  anmintUchrn  Landcstheilrn  des  pieussischen  Staates.  ed. 
1843,  pp.  281-302. 


333  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

with  the  conditions  he  describes.  The  naivete  with  which  he 
judges  and  completely  distorts  many  aspects  of  Jewish  life  is 
astounding.  The  economic  pursuits  of  the  Jews,  such  as  trad- 
ing, leasing  of  land,  innkeeping,  brokerage,  are  nothing  but 
"  subtle  devices  to  squeeze  out  the  wealth  of  their  neighbors, 
under  the  guise  of  offering  them  benefits  and  favors."  The 
Jewish  school  is  "  a  hotbed  of  superstitions."  Moral  senti- 
ments are  entirely  a))seut  among  Jews :  "  they  have  no  con- 
ception of  lovingkindness,  disinterestedness,  and  other  vir- 
tues.'" All  they  do  is  "  to  collect  riches  in  order  to  erect  a 
new  temple  of  Solomon  or  [to  satisfy]  their  fleshly  desires." 

This  curious  bit  of  characterization  forms  the  preamble  to 
a  vast  scheme,  consisting  of  no  less  than  eighty-eight  clauses, 
looking  to  the  "  transformation  of  the  Jews."  The  Jews  are  to 
be  placed  under  "  Supreme  [t.  e.  Imperial]  protection  and 
tutelage  "  and  to  be  supervised  by  a  special  Christian  official, 
a  "  Protector,"  who,  with  the  assistance  of  committees  to  be 
appointed  by  the  gubernatorial  administrations,  shall  carry 
out  this  work  of  "  transformation,"  shall  take  a  census  of 
all  the  Jews,  and  provide  them  with  family  names.  There- 
upon the  Jews  shall  be  divided  into  four  categories :  mer- 
chants, urban  burghers,  rural  burghers,  and  agricultural  set- 
tlers, and  every  Jew  shall  be  forced  to  register  in  one  of  these 
categories.  All  this  mass  of  Jews  is  to  be  evenly  distributed 
over  the  various  parts  of  White  Eussia,  and  the  surplus  trans- 
ferred to  the  other  Governments. 

This  reform  having  been  accomplished,  the  Kahals  shall  be 
dispensed  with.  To  provide  for  the  management  of  the  spirit- 
ual affairs  of  the  Jews,  "  synagogues,"  with  rabbis  and 
"  schoolmen,"  are  to  be  organized  in  the  various  Governments. 


BEGINNINGS  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  REGIME  333 

A  supreme  ecclesiastic  tribunal  is  to  be  established  at  St.  Peters- 
burg, under  the  name  "  Sendarin,"  *  which  shall  be  presided 
over  by  a  chief  rabbi,  or  "  patriarch/^  after  the  pattern  of  the 
Moliammedan  mufti  of  the  Tatars. 

Suggestions  of  various  repressive  and  compulsory  measures 
supplement  these  positive  proposals.  The  Jews  are  to  be  for- 
bidden to  keep  Christian  domestics ;  they  are  to  be  deprived  of 
their  right  of  participating  in  the  city  magistracies;  they  are 
to  be  compelled  to  give  up  their  distinct  form  of  dress  and  to 
execute  all  deeds  and  business  documents  in  Eussian,  Polish, 
or  German.  The  children  shall  be  allowed  to  go  to  the  Jewish 
religious  schools  only  up  to  the  age  of  twelve,  and  shall  after- 
wards be  transferred  to  the  secular  schools  of  the  state. 
Finally  the  author  proposes  that  the  Government  establish  a 
printing-office  of  its  own,  to  publish  Jewish  religious  books 
"  with  philosophic  annotations."  In  this  way,  Dyerzhavin 
contends,  will  "  the  stubborn  and  cunning  tribe  of  Hebrews 
be  properly  set  to  rights,''  and  Emperor  Paul,  by  carrying  out 
this  reform,  will  earn  great  fame  for  having  fulfilled  the  com- 
mandment of  the  Gospels,  "  Love  your  enemies,  bless  them 
that  curse  you,  do  good  to  them  that  hate  you." 

Such  is  Dyerzhavin's  project,  a  curious  mixture  of  the 
savage  fancies  of  an  old-fashioned  Muscovite  about  an  un- 
familiar bistoric  culture  on  tlio  0110  hand,  and  notioiis  of 
reform  conceived  in  the  contemporary  Prussian  barrack  spirit 
and  various  "  philosophic "  tendencies  on  the  other  hand,  a 
medley  of  hereditary  Jew-hatred,  vague  appreciation  of  the 
historic  tragedy  of  Judaism,  and  the  desire  to  "  render  the 

'  This  is  the  way  Dyerzhavin  spells  the  word  Synhedrlon,  or  San- 
hedrin,  which  he  evidently  had  picked  up  casually. 


334  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

Jews  useful  to  the  state."  *  And  over  it  all  hovers  the  spirit 
of  official  patronage  and  red-tape  regulations,  the  curious 
notion  that  a  people  with  an  ancient  culture  can,  at  the  mere 
bidding  of  an  outside  agency,  change  its  position  like  figures 
on  a  chess-board,  that  strange  faith  in  the  saving  power  of 
mechanical  reforms  which  prevailed,  though  in  less  naive 
manifestations,  also  in  Western  Europe. 

Dyerzhavin's  "  Opinion ''  was  laid  before  the  Senate  in 
December,  1800,  and  together  with  the  previously  submitted 
recommendations  of  the  West-Russian  marshals  and  governors 
was  to  supply  the  material  for  an  organic  legal  enactment  con- 
cerning the  Jews. 

But  the  execution  of  this  plan  was  not  destined  to  take  place 
during  the  reign  of  Paul.  In  March,  1801,  the  Tzar  met  his 
tragic  fate,  and  the  cause  of  "  Jewish  reform  "  entered  into 
a  new  phase,  a  phase  characterized  by  the  struggle  between  the 
liberal  tendencies  prevalent  at  the  beginning  of  Alexander  I.'s 
reign  and  the  retrograde  views  held  by  the  champions  of  Old 
Poland  and  Old  Russia. 

•  The  following  sentence  in  Dyerzhavin's  "  Opinion  "  is  typical 
of  this  mixture  of  medieval  notions  with  the  new  system  of 
"enlightened  patronage":  "Inasmuch  as  Supreme  Providence,  in 
order  to  attain  its  unknown  ends,  leaves  this  people,  despite  its 
dangerous  characteristics,  on  the  face  of  the  earth,  and  refrains 
from  destroying  it,  the  Governments  under  whose  scepter  it  takes 
refuge  must  also  suffer  it  to  live;  assisting  the  decree  of  destiny, 
they  are  in  duty  bound  to  extend  their  patronage  even  to  the 
Jews,  but  in  such  wise  that  they  [the  Jews]  may  prove  useful  both 
to  themselves  and  to  the  people  in  whose  midst  they  are  settled." 


CHAPTER  X 

THE  "ENLIGHTENED  ABSOLUTISM  "  OF 
ALEXANDER  I. 

1 .  "  The  Committee  for  the  Amelioration  of  the  Jews." 

The  liberal  breeze  which  began  to  stir  in  the  first  years  of 
Alexander  I.'s  reign  sent  a  refreshing  current  of  air  through 
the  stuffy  atmosphere  of  the  St.  Petersburg  chancelleries,  in 
which  Russian  bureaucrats,  undisturbed  by  their  utter  ignor- 
ance of  Judaism,  were  devising  ways  and  means  of  turning  Jew- 
ish life  upside  down.  It  took  some  time,  however,  before  the 
Jewish  question  was  taken  up  again.  In  1801  and  1802  the 
Government  was  busy  rearranging  the  whole  machinery  of 
the  administration.  With  the  formation  of  the  Ministries 
and  of  the  Council  of  State  the  Senate  lost  its  former  execu- 
tive power,  and,  as  a  result,  the  material  relating  to  the  Jewish 
question  which  had  been  in  its  possession  had  to  be  transferred 
to  a  new  official  agency. 

Such  an  agency  was  called  into  being  in  November,  1802. 
By  order  of  the  Tzar  a  special  "  Committee  for  the  Ameliora- 
tion of  the  Jews  "  was  organized,  and  the  following  were  ap- 
pointed its  members:  Kochubay,  Minister  of  the  Interior, 
Dyerzhavin,  the  "  specialist "  on  Judaism,  at  that  time 
Minister  of  Justice,  Count  Zubov,  and  two  high  officials  of 
Polish  birth,  Adam  Chartoriski,  Assistant-Minister  for 
Foreign  Affairs,  an  intimate  friend  of  Alexander  I.,  and 
Severin  Pototzki,  a  member  of  the  Senate.  The  Committee 
was  charged  with  the  investigation  of  all  the  problems  touched 
upon  in  Dyerzhavin's  "  Opinion,"  concerning  the  curbing  of 
22 


336  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

the  avaricious  pursuits  of  the  Jews  in  White  Eussia,  with  a 
view  to  "  extending  the  amelioration  of  the  Jews  also  to  the 
other  Governments  acquired  from  Poland." 

Rumors  to  the  effect  that  a  special  Committee  on  Jewish 
affairs  had  been  instituted  at  St.  Petersburg,  and  that  its  work 
was  to  follow  the  lines  laid  do'O'n  in  the  project  of  Dyerzhavin, 
caused  considerable  alarm  among  the  Jews  of  the  Northwest, 
who  knew  but  too  well  the  anti-Semitic  leanings  of  the  former 
Senator  and  inspector.  The  Kahal  of  Minsk  held  a  special 
meeting  in  December,  1802,  which  passed  the  following  reso- 
lution : 

Whereas  disquieting  rumors  have  reached  us  from  the  capital, 
to  the  effect  that  matters  involving  the  Jews  as  a  whole  have  now 
been  intrusted  to  the  hands  of  five  dignitaries,  with  power  to  dis- 
pose of  them  as  they  see  lit,  be  it  resolved  that  it  is  necessary  to 
proceed  to  St.  Petersburg  and  petition  our  sovereign  not  to  allow 
them  [the  dignitaries]  to  Introduce  any  innovations  among  us. 

A  public  appeal  was  made  for  funds  to  provide  the  expenses 
of  the  delegates.  Moreover,  a  fast  of  three  days  was  imposed 
on  all  the  members  of  the  community,  during  which  prayers 
were  to  be  offered  up  in  the  synagogues  for  averting  the 
calamity  which  the  Government  threatened  to  brmg  upon  the 
Jews. 

When  the  Minister  of  the  Interior,  Kochubay,  learned  of  the 
excitement  prevailing  among  the  Jews,  he  sent,  in  January, 
1803,  a  circular  to  the  governors,  instructing  them  to  allay  the 
fears  of  the  Jews.  The  Kahals  were  to  be  informed  that  "  in 
appointing  the  Committee  for  the  investigation  of  Jewish 
matters,"  there  was  "  no  intention  whatsoever  to  impair  their 
status  or  to  curtail  any  substantial  advantage  enjoyed  by 
them,"  but  on  the  contrary  it  was  proposed  to  "offer  them 
better  conditions  and  greater  security." 


ENLIGHTENED  ABSOLUTISM  OF  ALEXANDER  I.      337 

This  verbal  assurance  was  not  nearly  so  effective  in  quiet- 
ing the  minds  of  the  Jews  as  action  taken  by  the  Government 
at  the  same  time.  In  the  beginning  of  1803,  the  "  Jewish 
Committee  "  resolved  to  invite  deputies  from  all  the  guber- 
natorial Kahals  to  St.  Petersburg  for  the  purpose  of  ascer- 
taining their  views  as  to  the  needs  of  the  Jewish  people, 
which  the  Government  had  planned  to  "  transform  "  without 
its  own  knowledge.  This  was  the  first  departure  from  the 
red-tape  routine  of  St.  Petersburg.  Towards  the  end  of  Jan- 
uary, 1803,  active  preparations  were  set  afoot  by  the  Kahals 
for  sending  such  deputies.  During  the  winter  and  spring  the 
Russian  capital  witnessed  the  arrival  of  Jewish  deputies  from 
the  Governments  of  Minsk,  Podolia,  Moghilev,  and  Kiev,  no 
information  being  available  about  the  other  Governments. 
The  deputies  soon  had  occasion  to  rejoice  in  Dyerzhavin's 
retirement  from  membership  in  the  Jewish  Committee,  fol- 
lowing upon  his  resignation  from  the  post  of  Minister  of 
Justice.  Being  a  conservative  of  the  "  real  Russian  "  type, 
Dyerzhavin  was  out  of  place  in  a  liberal  Government  such  as 
ruled  the  destinies  of  Russia  in  the  early  years  of  Alexander's 
reign.  With  his  retirement  his  "  Opinion  "  ceased  to  serve  as 
an  obligatory  rule  of  conduct  for  the  members  of  the  Com- 
mittee. 

On  arriving  in  St.  Petersburg,  the  deputies  from  the  prov- 
inces found  there  a  small  group  of  Jews,  mostly  natives  of 
White  Russia,  who  lived  temporarily  in  the  capital,  in  con- 
nection with  their  business  affairs.  Though  denied  the  right 
of  permanent  domicile  in  the  capital  of  the  Empire,  this  hand- 
ful of  barely  tolerated  Jews  had  managed  to  secure  the  right 
of  dying  there  and  of  burying  their  dead  in  their  own  cemetery. 
The  opening  of  the  cemetery  in   1803  marks  symbolically 


338  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

the  inception  of  the  Jewish  community  in  St.  Petersburg.  In 
the  same  sign  of  death  the  provincial  deputies  met  their  metro- 
politan brethren  at  a  rather  strange  "  celebration  "  in  the  sum- 
mer of  1803 :  at  the  suggestion  of  the  deputies  and  in  their 
presence  the  remains  of  three  Jews  who  had  been  buried  in  a 
Christian  cemetery  were  transferred  to  the  newly-acquired 
Jewish  cemetery. 

Among  the  Jews  of  St.  Petersburg  there  were  several  men 
at  that  time  who,  owing  to  their  connections  with  high  officials 
and  because  of  their  familiarity  with  bureaucratic  ways,  were 
able  to  be  of  substantial  service  to  the  deputies  from  the  prov- 
inces. One  of  these  Jews,  Nota  Shklover,  who  about  that  time 
received  the  family  name  Notkin,  the  same  public-spirited 
merchant  who  in  1800  had  submitted  his  reform  project  to 
Dyerzhavin,'  acted,  it  would  seem,  as  the  official  adviser  of  the 
deputies,  having  been  invited  some  time  previously  to  partici- 
pate in  the  labors  of  the  Jewish  Committee.  While  on  the 
Committee,  he  continually  insisted  on  his  scheme  of  promoting 
agriculture  and  manufactures  among  the  Jews,  but  he  did 
not  live  to  se^  the  triumph  of  his  ideas.  He  died  shortly  be- 
fore the  enactment  of  the  law  of  1804,  in  which  his  pet  theory 
found  due  recognition.  Another  St.  Petersburg  Jew,  the 
wealthy  contractor  and  commercial  councilor  Abraham  Peretz, 
took  no  immediate  part  in  Jewish  affairs.  Yet  he  too  was  of 
some  service  to  the  deputies,  owing  to  his  business  relations 
with  the  official  world. 

In  the  meantime  the  Committee  for  the  Amelioration  of 
the  Jews,  after  scrutinizing  the  different  projects  submit- 
ted to  it,  had  worked  out  a  general  plan  of  reform,  and 
communicated  it  to  the  Jewish  deputies.     After  "  prolonged 

» See  p.  330. 


ENLIGHTENED  ABSOLUTISM  OF  ALEXANDER  I.     339 

indecision  '"  the  Jewisli  deputies  announced  that  they  were 
not  in  a  position  to  submit  their  conclusions,  without  previous 
consultation  with  the  Kahals  by  which  they  had  been  elected. 
They  accordingly  asked  for  a  half-year's  respite  "  for  the  pur- 
pose of  consultation."  The  official  Jewish  Committee,  on 
the  other  hand,  could  not  agree  to  so  protracted  a  delay  in 
its  labors,  and  resolved  to  submit,  through  the  medium  of  tlie 
Government,  the  principal  clauses  of  the  project  to  the  Kahals, 
with  the  imderstanding  that  the  latter,  "  without  making  any 
changes  in  the  aforesaid  clauses,"'  should  confine  themselves 
to  suggestions  as  to  the  best  ways  and  means  of  carrying  the 
proposed  reforms  into  effect. 

The  epistolary  inquiry  failed  to  produce  the  "  desired 
eifect."  Restricted  beforehand  in  their  free  expression  of 
opinion,  and  having  no  right  to  speak  their  mind  as  to  the 
substance  of  the  project,  the  Kahals  in  replying  limited  them- 
selves to  the  request  that  the  "  correctional  measures "  be 
postponed  for  twenty  years,  particularly  as  far  as  the  proposed 
prohibition  of  the  sale  of  liquor  and  land-tenure  was  con- 
cerned, which  prohibition  would  undermine  the  whole  eco- 
nomic structure  of  Jewish  life.  The  Committee  paid  no  heed 
to  the  plea  of  the  Kahals,  which  was  tantamount  to  a  con- 
demnation of  the  basic  principles  of  the  project,  and  proceeded 
to  work  in  the  direction  originally  decided  upon. 

Nor  was  there  perfect  unanimity  within  the  Committee 
itself.  Two  tendencies,  it  seems,  were  struggling  for  mastery : 
utilitarianism,  represented  by  the  champions  of  "  correctional 
measures "  and  of  a  compulsory  "  transformation  of  Jewish 
life,"  and  humanitarianism,  advocated  by  the  spokesmen  of 
unconditional  emancipation.  To  the  latter  class  belonged 
Speranski,  the  brilliant  and  enlightened  statesman  who  might 


34U  'i'HE  JEWS   IN   RUSSIA   AND  POLAND 

have  succeeded  in  liberating  the  Empire  of  the  Tzars  a  hun- 
dred years  ago,  had  he  not  fallen  a  victim  to  the  fatal  con- 
ditions of  Russian  life.  At  the  time  we  are  speaking  of  he 
served  in  the  IMinistry  of  the  Interior  under  Kochubay,  and 
was  engaged  in  elaborating  plans  of  reform  for  the  various 
departments  of  the  civil  service. 

Speranski  took  an  active  interest  in  the  Committee  for  the 
Amelioration  of  the  Jews,  and  frequently  acted  as  Kochu- 
bay's  substitute.  There  was  a  time  when  his  influence  in  the 
Committee  was  predominant.  It  was  evidently  under  his  influ- 
ence that  the  remarkable  sentences  embodied  in  the  minutes  of 
the  Committee  meeting  of  September  20, 1803,  were  penned  : 

Reforms  brought  about  by  the  power  of  the  state  are,  as  a  rule, 
unstable,  and  are  particularly  untenable  in  those  cases  in  which 
that  power  has  to  grapple  with  the  habits  of  centuries.  Hence  it 
seems  both  better  and  safer  to  guide  the  Jews  to  perfection  by 
throwing  open  to  them  the  avenues  leading  to  their  own  happiness, 
by  observing  their  movements  from  a  distance,  and  by  removing 
everything  that  might  turn  them  away  from  this  path,  without 
using  any  manner  of  force,  without  establishing  special  agencies 
for  them,  without  endeavoring  to  act  in  their  stead,  but  by  merely 
opening  the  way  for  their  own  activities.  As  few  restrictions  as 
possible,  as  many  liberties  as  possible — these  are  the  simple  ele- 
ments of  every  social  order. 

Since  the  Government  had  begun  to  dabble  in  the  Jewish 
question,  this  was  the  first  rational  utterance  coming  from  the 
ranks  of  the  Eussian  bureaucracy.  It  implied  an  emphatic  con- 
demnation of  the  system  of  state  patronage  and  "  correc- 
tional measures  "  by  means  of  which  Russian  officialdom  then 
and  thereafter  sought  to  "  transform  "  a  whole  nation.  Here 
for  the  first  time  was  voiced  the  lofty  precept  of  humanitarian- 
ism  :  grant  the  Jews  untrammeled  possibilities  of  development, 


ENLIGHTENED  ABSOLUTISM  OF  ALEXANDER  I.     3]i 

give  full  scope  to  their  energies,  and  the  Jews  themselves  will 
in  the  end  choose  the  way  which  leads  to  "  perfection  "  and 
progress  ....  But  even  the  liberalizing  statesmen  of  that 
period  could  not  maintain  themselves  on  that  high  eminence 
of  political  thought.  Speranski's  conception  was  too  tender 
a  blossom  for  the  rough  climate  of  Russia,  even  in  its  springtide. 
The  blossom  was  bound  to  wither.  As  far  as  the  Committee  for 
the  Amelioration  of  the  Jews  was  concerned,  the  hackneyed 
political  wisdom  of  the  age,  the  system  of  patronage  and  com- 
pulsory reforms,  came  to  the  fore  again.  The  report  submitted 
by  the  Jewish  Committee  to  Alexander  I.  in  October,  180-1, 
reveals  no  trace  of  that  radical  liberalism  which  a  year  before 
had  come  to  light  in  the  minutes  of  the  Committee. 

The  report  begins  by  determining  the  approximate  size  of 
the  Jewish  population,  computing  the  number  of  registered, 
taxable  males  at  174,385 — "  a  figure  which  represents  less 
than  a  fifth  of  the  whole  Jewish  population."  In  other  words, 
the  total  number  of  Jews,  in  the  estimate  of  the  Committee, 
approached  one  million.  The  re])ort  proceeds  to  point  out  that 
this  entire  mass  is  huddled  together  in  the  annexed  Polish  and 
Lithuanian  provinces  and  in  Little  Russia  and  Courland, 
and  is  barred  from  the  Governments  of  the  interior — a  state- 
ment followed  by  an  historical  excursus  tending  to  show  that 
''  the  Jews  have  never  been  allowed  to  settle  in  Russia."  The 
Tzar  is  further  informed  that  the  Jews  are  obliged  to  pay 
double  taxes,  that,  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  they  are 
liable  to  the  general  courts  and  municipalities,  and  that  their 
Kahals  are  subordinate  to  the  gubernatorial  police,  the  Jews 
still  keep  aloof  from  the  institutions  of  the  land  and  manage 
their  affairs  through  the  Kahals.  Finally  it  is  ])ointed  out  that 
the  tale  of  liquor,  the  most  widespread  occu[i<ilion  among  Jews, 


342  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

is  a  source  of  abuses,  calling  forth  complaints  from  the  sur- 
rounding population.  Basing  its  deductions  on  these  prem- 
ises, the  Committee  drafted  a  law  which  in  its  principal 
features  was  embodied  in  the  "  Statute  Concerning  tlie  Or- 
ganization of  the  Jews,"  issued,  with  the  sanction  of  the  Tzar, 
soon  afterwards,  on  December  9,  1804. 

2.  The  "  Jewish  Constitution  "  of  1804 

The  new  charter,  a  mixture  of  liberties  and  disabilities,  was 
prompted,  as  is  stated  in  the  preamble,  "  by  solicitude  for  the 
true  welfare  of  the  Jews,"  as  well  as  for  ''  the  advantage  of 
the  native  population  of  those  Governments  in  which  these 
people  are  allowed  to  live."  The  concluding  part  of  the  sen- 
tence anticipates  the  way  in  which  the  question  of  the  Jewish 
area  of  settlement  is  solved.  It  remained  limited  as  there- 
tofore to  thirteen  Governments:  two  in  Lithuania,  two  in 
White  Eussia,  two  in  Little  Eussia,  those  of  Minsk,  Volhynia, 
Kiev,  and  Podolia,  and  finally  three  in  New  Eussia.  A  slightly 
larger  area  is  conceded  by  the  new  statute  to  the  future  class  of 
Jewish  agriculturists  projected  in  the  same  statute.  They  are 
permitted  to  settle  in  addition  in  two  interior  Governments, 
those  of  z\strakhan  and  Caucasia. 

Economically  the  new  statute  establishes  two  opposite  poles : 
a  negative  pole  as  far  as  the  rural  occupations  of  innkeeping 
and  land-tenure  are  concerned,  which  are  to  be  exterminated 
ruthlessly,  and  a  positive  pole,  as  far  as  agriculture  is  in- 
volved, which  on  the  contrary  is  to  be  stimulated  and  promoted 
among  Jews  in  every  possible  manner.  Clause  34,  the  severest 
provision  of  the  whole  act,  is  directed  not  only  against  inn- 
keeping  but  against  rural  occupations  in  general.  It  reads  as 
follows : 


ENLIGHTENED  ABSOLUTISM  OF  ALEXANDER  I.      343 

Beginning  with  January  1,  1807,  in  tlie  Governments  of  Astra- 
khan and  Caucasia,  also  in  those  of  Little  Russia  and  New 
Russia,  and,  beginning  with  January  1,  1808,  in  the  other  Govern- 
ments, no  one  among  the  Jews  in  any  village  or  hamlet  shall  be 
permitted  to  hold  any  leases  on  land,  to  keep  taverns,  saloons,  or 
inns,  whether  under  his  own  name  or  under  a  strange  name,  or  to 
sell  wine  in  them,  or  even  to  live  in  them  under  any  pretext  what- 
ever, except  when  passing  through. 

With  one  stroke  this  clause  eliminated  from  the  economic 
life  of  the  Jews  an  occupation  which,  though  far  from  being 
distinguished,  had  yet  afforded  a  livelihood  to  almost  one- 
half  of  the  whole  Jewish  population  of  Eussia.  Moreover,  the 
none  too  extensive  territory  of  the  Jewish  Pale  of  Settlement 
was  still  more  limited  by  excluding  from  it  the  enormous  area 
of  villages  and  hamlets. 

The  economic  and  legal  blow  aimed  at  the  Jews  in  the 
Statute  of  1804  was  to  be  made  good  by  the  privileges  held 
forth  to  those  willing  to  engage  in  agriculture.  Such  Jews 
were  accorded  the  right  of  buying  unoccupied  lands  in  all 
the  western  and  in  two  of  the  eastern  Governments,  or  of 
establishing  themselves  on  crown  lands.  In  the  latter  case 
the  settlers  were  to  be  assigned  definite  parcels  of  land  and, 
for  the  first  few  years,  be  exempt  from  state  taxes.  However, 
it  soon  became  evident  that  the  proposed  remedy  was  out  of 
jiroportion  to  the  seriousness  of  the  wound  that  had  been 
inflicted.  While  hundreds  of  thousands  of  Jews  were  driven 
from  the  rural  occupations  with  which  their  economic  life 
had  been  bound  up  for  centuries,  the  new  branch  of  labor 
opened  to  the  Jews,  the  pursuit  of  agriculture,  could,  for 
some  time  to  come,  attract  at  the  utmost  only  a  few  insignifi- 
cant groups  of  the  Jewish  population. 


344  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

Among  the  favored  occupations,  ranging  in  importance 
beneath  agriculture,  the  new  law  includes  industry  and  handi- 
crafts. Manufacturers  and  artisans  are  declared  exempt  from 
the  double  tax  imposed  on  Jews,^  and  the  foimders  of  "  the  most 
needed  factories "  are  promised,  in  addition,  a  Government 
loan.  The  Jewish  merchants  and  burghers  are  placed  in  the 
last  rank,  being  merely  "  tolerated."  Manufacturers,  artisans, 
and  merchants  are  given  permission  to  sojourn  temporarily  for 
business  purposes  in  "  the  interior  Governments,  not  excluding 
the  capitals,  but  not  otherwise  than  with  gubernatorial  pass- 
ports," such  as  are  given  for  going  abroad. 

In  the  chapter  entitled  "  On  the  Civil  Organization  of  the 
Jews,"  the  new  charter  establishes,  on  the  one  hand,  the  lia- 
bility of  the  Jews  to  the  authority  of  the  municipalities,  the 
common  police,  and  the  common  law  courts,  and  grants  the 
JeAvs,  on  the  other  hand,  the  right  of  electing  rabbis  and 
"  Kahalmen,"  who  shall  be  replaced  every  three  years,  and  shall 
be  ratified  by  the  gubernatorial  administration.  Special  clauses 
provide  that  the  rabbis  are  obliged  "  to  look  after  all  the 
ceremonies  of  the  Jewish  faith  and  decide  all  disputes  bearing 
on  religion,"  but  they  are  strictly  forbidden  to  resort  to 
"anathemas"  and  excommunications  (the  so-called  herem). 
The  Kahals  in  turn  are  held  responsible  for  the  regular  pay- 
ment of  the  state  taxes.  The  communal  autonomy  of  the  Jews 
was  thus  calculated  to  serve  two  masters,  religion  and  the 
exchequer,  God  and  mammon,  and  was  expected  to  adjust 
its  manifold  problems  to  both. 

The  "  Jewish  Constitution  "  of  1804  is  provided  as  it  were 
with  a  European  label.  Its  first  chapter  bears  the  heading 
"  On  Enlightenment."    Jewish  children  are  granted  free  access 

'  See  p.  318. 


ENLIGHTENED  ABSOLUTISM  OF  ALEXANDER  I.      :5I5 

to  all  public  schools,  gymnasiums,  aud  uuiversities  in  the  Kus- 
sian  Empire.  The  Jews  are  also  granted  the  right  of  opening 
their  ovn\  schools  for  secular  culture,  one  of  three  lan- 
guages, Eussian,  Polish,  or  German,  to  be  obligatory.  One 
of  these  languages  is  also,  within  a  period  of  two  to  six  years 
from  the  promulgation  of  the  law,  to  become  obligatory  for  all 
])ublic  documents,  promissory  notes,  commercial  ledgers,  etc. 
The  Jews  elected  members  of  municipalities  or  chosen  as 
rabbis  and  Kahal  members  are  obliged,  within  a  definite  term 
( 1808-1812),  to  know  one  of  these  three  languages  to  the  extent 
of  being  able  to  write  and  speak  it.  Moreover,  the  Jewish  mem- 
bers of  the  municipalities  are  expected  to  wear  clothes  of  the 
Polish,  Eussian,  or  German  pattern. 

This  "  enlightened  "  program  represents  the  tribute  which 
the  Eussian  Government  felt  obliged  to  render  to  the  spirit 
of  the  age,  the  spirit  of  enlightened  Prussian  absolutism  rather 
than  that  of  French  emancipation.  It  was  the  typical  sample 
of  a  Prusso-Austrian  Reglenient,  embodying  the  very  sys- 
tem of  "  reforms  brought  about  by  the  power  of  the  state  " 
against  which  Speranski  had  vainly  cautioned.  In  concrete 
reality  this  system  resulted  in  nothing  else  than  the  violent 
break-up  of  a  structure  built  by  centuries,  relentless  coercion 
on  the  one  hand  and  suffering  of  the  patronized  masses  on  the 
other. 

3.  The  Projected  Expulsion  feom  the  Villages 

The  legal  enactment  of  1804  was  appraised  by  the  Eussian 
Jews  at  its  true  value :  problematic  benefits  in  the  future  and 
undeniable  hardships  for  the  present.  The  prospect  of  future 
benefits,  the  attainment  of  which  was  conditioned  by  the 
weakening  of  the  time-honored  foundations  of  a  stalwart  Jew- 


;j/j(;  'Illl-;  .lli:\VS   IN   IM'SSIA    AND   POLAND 

irtli  ciilinrul  life,  ('.\|ii(\ssiii;j;  itiscH'  in  liUif;uHgc,  school,  and  com- 
niuiuil  sclf-i^ovornnicnl,  liad  no  I'lisciiiaiioii  for  Kussian  Jews, 
who  had  nut  yd  hccn  loiiclicd  hy  the  intluences  of  Western 
I'^ui'opc.  Iliil  whal  th(!  Itussian  Jews  did  feel,  and  feel  with 
Hickcnin;^  pain,  was  the  iinniinence  of  a  terrible  ecojioniie  catas- 
lr(»pii(',  Ihe  expulsion  of  hundreds  of  Ihousands  of  Jews  from 
the  vdhii;<'s.  It  soon  heeauie  evident  that  the  expulsion  would 
alVeet  (iO.OOO  Jewisli  families,  or  about  half  a  million  Jews. 
Nee<jless  lo  say,  within  llie  two  or  three  years  of  respite  whieh 
remained  Ixd'ore  tiie  i-atastrophe,  this  hu<;e  mass  could  not  poss- 
ibly ^'ain  access  to  new  lields  of  labor  and  establish  itself  in 
new  domiciles,  and  it  was  therefore  in  danger  of  being  starved 
to  death.  In  consetinence,  St.  Petersburg  was  flooded  with 
petitions  imploring  the  authorities  to  postpone  the  expulsion 
for  a  tunc.  Tlu'se  petitions  came  not  only  from  the  Kahals  but 
nlst)  from  t'ountry  s(]uires,  for  whom  the  removal  of  the  Jewish 
teiuints  and  ii\nkeptMs  from  their  estates  entailed  considerable 
linant'ial  K>sscs.  Witli  the  approach  of  the  year  1808,  the  time 
limit  set  f^>r  the  expulsion,  liie  shouts  of  despair  from  the 
provinces  Ixuanu^  louder  and  louder.  It  is  ditficult  to  say 
whether  tln>  U'nssian  (unernment  would  have  responded  to  the 
terrd)le  outcry,  had  it  not  been  for  an  event  which  set  all  the 
juditical  i-indes  of  St.  Petersburg  agog. 

It  was  m  the  autumn  of  180().  The  "Jewish  Parliament'* 
in  Paris,  whicii  had  been  assembled  by  Napoleon,  was  con- 
cluding its  sessions,  and  was  sending  out  appeals  to  all  the 
countries  of  Europe  announcing  the  impending  convocation 
(vf  Uie  **  Great  Synhedrion."  This  new  fad  of  Napoleon  dis- 
turbed all  the  Kuropean  tunernments  which  were  on  terms  of 
euuiity  with  the  French  l^mperor,  and  had  reason  to  fear 
the  discontent  of  their  Jew  ish  subjects.    The  Austrian  Govern- 


ENLIGHTENED  ABSOLUTISM  OF  ALEXANDER  I.     317 

meut  went  so  far  as  to  forbid  the  Jews  to  enter  into  any  rela- 
tions with  "  dangerous "  Paris.  St.  Petersburg  too  became 
alarmed.  Napoleon,  who  had  just  shattered  Prussia,  and  had 
already  entered  her  Polish  provinces,  was  gradually  approach- 
ing the  borders  of  hostile  Eussia.  The  awe  inspired  by  the 
statesmanlike  genius  of  the  French  Emperor  made  the  Russian 
Government  suspect  that  the  convocation  of  a  universal  Jew- 
ish Synhedrion  in  Paris  was  merely  a  Napoleonic  device  to 
dispose  the  Jewish  inasses  of  Prussia,  Austria,  and  Eussia  in 
his  favor.  In  these  circumstances  it  seemed  likely  that  the 
resentment  aroused  in  the  Russian  Jews  by  their  imminent 
expulsion  from  the  villages  would  provide  a  favorable  soil  for 
the  wily  agitation  of  Napoleon,  and  would  create  a  hotbed 
of  anti-Eussian  sentiment  in  the  very  regions  soon  to  become 
the  theater  of  war.  To  avoid  such  risks  it  seemed  imperative 
to  extinguish  the  flame  of  discontent  and  stop  the  expulsion. 
Thus  it  came  about  that  in  the  beginning  of  February, 
1807,  at  the  very  moment  when  the  sessions  of  the  Synhedrion 
were  opened  in  Paris,  the  Minister  of  the  Interior,  Kochubay, 
submitted  a  report  to  Alexander  I.,  in  which  he  pointed  out  the 
necessity  "  of  postponing  the  transplantation  of  the  Jews  from 
the  villages  into  the  towns  and  townlets,  so  as  to  guard  this 
nation  in  general  against  the  intentions  of  the  French  Gov- 
ernment." The  Tzar  concurred  in  this  opinion,  with  the  result 
that  a  special  committee  was  immediately  formed  to  consider 
the  practical  application  of  the  Statute  of  1804.  Apart  from 
Kochubay  and  other  high  officials,  the  committee  included  the 
Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs,  Budberg,  diplomatic  considera- 
tions being  involved  in  the  question.  On  February  15,  Sena- 
tor Alexcyev  was  directed  to  inspect  the  western  provinces  and 
find  out  to  what  extent  "  the  military  circumstances  and  the 


;348  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

present  condition  of  the  border  provinces  as  well  as  the 
economic  ruin  of  the  Jews,  which  is  inevitable  if  their  expul- 
sion be  enforced,"  render  this  expulsion  difficult  or  even  im- 
possible of  execution. 

At  the  same  time  the  Minister  of  the  Interior  instructed  the 
administrators  of  the  western  Governments  to  prevent  the 
slightest  contact  between  the  Jews  of  Russia  and  the  Syn- 
hedrion  in  Paris,  which  the  French  Government  was  using  as 
a  tool  to  curry  political  favor  with  the  Jews.  The  same  circu- 
lar letter  to  the  Governors  recommends  another  rather  curious 
device.  It  suggests  that  the  Jews  be  impressed  with  the  idea 
that  the  Spihedrion  in  Paris  was  endeavoring  to  modify  the 
Jewish  religion,  and  for  this  reason  did  not  deserve  the 
sympathy  of  the  Eussian  Jews. 

At  the  same  time  the  Holy  Synod  was  sending  out  circu- 
lars instructing  the  Greek  Orthodox  clergy  to  inform  the 
Eussian  people  that  Xapoleon  was  an  enemy  of  the  Church 
and  a  friend  of  the  Jews. 

That  he  might  the  more  effectively  put  the  Church  of  Christ  to 
shame — so  the  Holy  Synod  proclaimed — Napoleon  assembled  the 

Judean  Synagogues  in  France and  established  the  Great 

Synhedrion  of  the  Jews,  that  same  ungodly  assembly  which  had 
once  dared  pass  the  sentence  of  crucifixion  upon  our  Lord  and 
Savior  Jesus  Christ,  and  he  now  planneth  to  unite  the  Jews,  whom 
the  wrath  of  the  Almighty  hath  scattered  over  the  face  of  the  whole 
earth,  so  as  to  incite  them  to  overthrow  the  Christian  Church  and 
proclaim  the  pseudo-Messiah  in  the  person  of  Napoleon. 

By  these  devices  the  Government,  finding  itself  at  its  wits' 
end  in  the  face  of  a  great  war,  shrewdly  attempted  to  frighten  at 
once  the  Jewish  people  by  the  specter  of  an  anti-Jewish  Na- 
poleon and  the  Orthodox  Russians  by  Napoleon's  leaning 
towards  Judaism.    The  former  were  made  to  believe  that  the 


ENLIGHTENED  ABSOLUTISM  OF  ALEXANDER  I.      349 

Synhedrion  was  directed  against  tlic  Jewish  religion,  and  the 
latter  were  told  that  it  was  established  by  the  Jewish  "  pseudo- 
Messiah  "  for  the  overthrow  of  Christianity. 

In  this  precarious  situation  the  Government  once  more 
decided  to  ascertain,  by  means  of  a  circular  inquiry,  the  views 
of  the  representatives  of  the  Jewish  communities  on  the  best 
ways  of  carrying  the  "  reform  "  into  effect.  The  ukase  of 
February  19,  issued  by  the  Tzar  on  this  occasion,  is  couched  in 
surprisingly  mild  terms : 

Prompted  by  the  desire  to  give  our  subjects  of  the  Jewish 
nationality  another  proof  of  our  solicitude  about  their  welfare,  we 
have  deemed  it  right  to  allow  all  the  Jewish  communes  in  the 
Governments  ....  of  Vilna,  Grodno,  Kiev,  Minsk,  Podolia,  Volhy- 
nia,  Vitebsk,  and  Moghilev,  to  elect  deputies  and  to  suggest,  through 
them,  to  the  gubernatorial  administrators  the  means  which  they 
themselves  consider  best  fitted  for  the  most  successful  execu- 
tion of  the  measures  laid  down  in  the  Statute  of  1804. 

The  deputies  were  summoned  this  time,  not  to  St.  Peters- 
burg, but  to  tlie  provincial  capitals  in  order  to  present  their 
opinions  to  the  governors. 

The  expression  of  opinion  on  the  part  of  the  Jewish  depu- 
ties, or,  as  they  were  officially  styled,  "  the  attorneys  of  the 
Jewish  communes,"  did  not  limit  itself  to  the  fatal  thirty- 
fourth  clause,  which  all  the  deputies  wished  to  see  repealed 
or  at  least  postponed  for  an  indefinite  period.  Serious  objec- 
tions were  raised  also  to  the  other  provisions  of  the  "  Jewish 
Constitution."  The  deputies  advocated  the  abolition  of  double 
taxation  for  all  classes  of  the  Jewish  population;  they  asked 
for  a  larger  range  of  authority  for  the  rabbinical  tribunals  and 
for  a  mitigation  of  the  provisions  forbidding  the  use  of  Hebrew 
in  legal  documents,  promissory  notes,  and  commercial  ledgers. 
Some  of  them  pleaded  for  a  postponement  of  the  law  con- 


350  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

cerning  Hebrew  as  being  iuconvenient  to  business,  while  others 
suggested  permitting  the  use  of  Hebrew  for  promissory  notes 
up  to  the  sum  of  one  hundred  rubels.' 

The  deputies  also  called  attention  to  the  difficulty,  on  the 
part  of  the  rabbis  and  Jewish  members  of  the  magistracies,  of 
acquiring  the  Russian  language  within  so  short  a  period.  They 
were  ready  to  assent  to  the  change  of  dress  for  the  magistrates 
and  those  living  temporarily  outside  the  Pale.  But  they 
pointed  out  at  the  same  time  that  the  prescribed  German 
dress  was  not  becoming  to  Jews,  who  on  account  of  religious 
scruples  refused  to  shave  their  beards,  and  that  in  the  case 
of  magistrates  and  visitors  to  the  Eussian  interior  they  would 
prefer  to  adopt  the  Russian  form  of  dress.  As  for  the  laws 
relating  to  education,  the  deputies  observed  that  it  would  be 
useless  for  Jewish  children  to  go  to  the  common  Russian 
schools  as  long  as  they  did  not  understand  the  Russian  lan- 
guage, and  that  it  would  for  this  reason  seem  more  prac- 
ticable first  to  have  them  acquire  the  Russian  language  in  the 
Jewish  schools,  where  they  are  taught  the  Hebrew  language 
and  the  "  dogmas  of  the  faith." 

By  the  time  the  opinions  of  the  deputies  were  conveyed 
by  the  governors  to  St.  Petersburg,  the  political  sentiment 
there  had  undergone  a  change.  In  July,  1807,  the  Peace 
of  Tilsit  had  been  concluded.  An  entente  cordiale  had  been 
established  between  N^apoleon  and  Alexander  I.,  and  Russia 
no  more  stood  in  awe  of  Bonaparte's  "  intrigues."  There 
was  no  more  reason  to  fear  a  secret  understanding  between 

*  The  insistence  on  Hebrew  in  the  latter  case  is  connected  with 
the  rabbinical  form  of  promissory  note,  the  so-called  Shtar  Iska 
[a  form  of  partnership  agreement  which  was  designed  to  obviate 
the  difficulties  arising  out  of  the  Biblical  prohibition  to  lend  money 
on  interest.  A  similar  legal  fiction  was  introduced  by  the  medieval 
Church]. 


ENLIGHTENED  ABSOLUTISM  OF  ALEXANDER  I.      35I 

the  Russian  Jews  aud  tlie  Parisian  Synhedrion,  which  had 
shortly  before  been  prorogued,  and  the  bureaucratic  compas- 
sion for  the  unfortunate  Jews  vanished  into  air.  The  last 
term  set  for  the  expulsion  from  the  villages,  January  1,  1808, 
was  drawing  near,  and  two  months  before  this  date,  on 
October  19,  1807,  the  Tzar  addressed  an  ukase,  marked  by 
extraordinary  severity,  to  the  Governor-General  of  the  Western 
region : 

The  circumstances  connected  with  the  war — the  ukase  states  in 
pr.rt — were  of  a  nature  to  complicate  and  suspend  the  transplanta- 
tion of  the  Jews These  complications  can  now,  after  the 

cessation  of  the  war,  be  averted  in  the  future  by  means  of  a  gradual 
and  most  convenient  arrangement  of  the  work  of  transplantation. 
....  For  these  reasons  we  deem  it  right  to  lay  down  an  arrange- 
ment by  means  of  which  the  transplantation  of  the  Jews,  begin- 
ning with  the  date  referred  to  above,  may  be  carried  into  effect, 
without  the  slightest  delay  and  mitigation. 

The  "  arrangement "  alluded  to  consisted  in  spreading  the 
expulsion  from  the  villages  over  tliree  years:  one-third  of 
the  Jews  were  to  be  expelled  in  1808,  another  third  in  1809, 
and  the  last  third  in  1810.  Committees  were  appointed  to 
assist  the  governors  in  carrying  out  the  expulsion  decree. 
These  committees  were  instructed  to  make  it  incumbent  upon 
the  Kahals  to  render  financial  assistance  to  the  expelled,  to 
those  who  were  being  pitilessly  ruined  by  the  Government.  . 

The  liorrors  of  the  expulsion  began. 

Those  who  did  not  go  willingly  were  made  to  leave  by  force. 
Many  were  ejected  ruthlessly,  under  the  escort  of  peasants  and 
soldiers.  They  were  driven  like  cattle  into  the  townlets  and 
cities,  and  left  there  on  the  public  squares  in  the  open  air.  The 
way  in  which  the  expulsion  from  the  villages  was  carried  out  in  the 
Government  of  Vitebsk  was  particularly  ferocious.' 

'See  Nikitin,  "The  .Jewish  Agr.culturists "  (in  Russian),  St. 
Petersburg,  1887,  p.  16. 


352  THE  JEWS   IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

Scores  of  exiled  Jews  petitioned  the  authorities  to  have  them 
transferred  to  New  Eussia,  to  the  agricultural  colonies,  in 
which  several  hundred  Jewish  families  had  found  some  kind 
of  shelter.  But  the  sup])ly  of  arable  land  and  the  funds  set 
aside  for  the  transfer  were  found  to  be  exliausted ;  the  appeals 
therefore  remained  unheeded.  The  distress  of  the  Jewish 
masses  reached  such  colossal  proportions  that  the  governors 
themselves,  in  their  reports  to  the  central  Government,  de- 
chired  that  it  was  impossible  to  carry  out  the  expulsion  decr^'e 
without  subjecting  the  Jews  to  complete  ruin.  Accordingly 
a  new  ukase  was  issued  in  the  last  days  of  December,  1808, 
to  the  effect  that  the  Jews  be  left  in  their  former  domiciles, 
pending  special  Imperial  orders. 

In  the  beginning  of  January,  1809,  a  new  Committee 
(chronologically  the  third)  was  appointed  in  St.  Petersburg 
for  the  purpose  of  examining  all  the  phases  of  the  problem  of 
diverting  the  Jews  from  the  rural  liquor  traffic  to  other 
branches  of  labor.  This  time  the  committee  consisted  of 
Senator  Alexeyev,'  who  had  made  a  tour  of  inspection  through 
the  western  provinces,  Privy-Councilor  Popov,  Assistant  Minis- 
ter of  the  Interior  Kozodavlev,  and  others.  In  his  instruc- 
tions to  Popov,  who  Avas  chairman  of  the  Committee,  the 
Tzar  admits  that  the  impossibility  of  removing  the  Jews  from 
the  villages  results  from  the  fact  that  "  the  Jews  themselves, 
on  account  of  their  destitute  condition,  have  no  means  which 
would  enable  them,  after  leaving  their  present  abodes,  to 
settle  and  found  a  home  in  their  new  surroundings,  while  the 
Government  is  equally  unable  to  undertake  to  place  them 
all  in  new  domiciles."  It  has  therefore  been  found  necessary 
"  to  seek  ways  and  means  whereby  the  Jews,  having  been 

[^  See  p.  347.] 


ENLIGHTENED  ABSOLUTISM  OB"  ALEXANDER  L      353 

reiiioved  from  their  exclusive  pursuit  of  selling  wiue  in  the 
villages,  hamlets,  inns,  and  public  houses,  may  be  enabled  to 
earn  a  livelihood  by  labor."  At  the  same  time  the  Committee 
was  directed  to  take  into  consideration  the  "  opinions  "  sub- 
mitted previously  by  the  Jewish  deputies.  After  indulging  in 
cruel  viviscctionist  experiments  on  human  beings,  the  Govern- 
ment finally  realized  that  mere  paper  orders  were  powerless  to 
remodel  an  economic  order,  which  centuries  of  development 
had  created,  and  that  violent  expulsions  and  restrictions  might 
result  in  ruining  people,  but  not  in  effecting  their  "  ameliora- 
tion." 

The  Committee  was  at  work  for  three  years.  The  results  of 
its  labors  were  embodied  in  a  remarkable  report  submitted  in 
March,  1812,  to  Alexander  I.  Since  Speranski's  declaration 
of  1803,  reproduced  above,'  this  ofiicial  document  was  the  first 
to  utter  a  word  of  truth  on  the  Jewish  problem. 

It  is  proposed — the  report  declares — to  remove  the  Jews  from 
the  rural  liquor  traffic,  because  the  latter  is  considered  harmful 
to  the  population.  But  it  is  obvious  that  the  root  of  the  drinking 
evil  is  not  to  be  found  with  the  saloon-keepers,  but  in  the  right  of 
distilling,  or  "  propination,"  which  constitutes  the  prerogative  of 
the  sruires  and  their  main  source  of  income.  Let  us  suppose  the 
sixty  thousand  Jewish  saloon-keepers  to  be  turned  out  from  the 
villages.  The  result  will  be  that  sixty  thousand  Russian  peasants 
will  take  their  place,  tens  of  thousands  of  efficient  farm-hands  will 
be  lost  to  the  soil,  while  the  Jews  cannot  be  expected  to  be  trans- 
formed into  capable  agriculturists  at  a  moment's  notice,  the  less  so 
as  the  Government  has  no  resources  to  effect  this  pudden  transfor- 
mation of  saloon-keepers  into  corn-growers.  It  is  not  true  that  the 
village  Jew  enriches  himself  at  the  expense  of  the  peasant.  On 
the  contrary,  he  is  generally  poor,  and  ekes  out  a  scanty  existence 
from  the  sale  of  liquor  and  by  supplying  the  peasants  with  the 

» See  p.  340. 


354  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

goods  they  need.  Moreover,  by  buying  the  corn  on  the  spot,  the 
Jew  saves  the  peasant  from  wasting  his  time  in  traveling  to  the 
city.  Altogether  in  rural  economic  life  the  Jew  plays  the  role  of 
a  go-between,  who  can  be  spared  neither  by  the  squire  nor  by  the 
peasant.  To  transfer  all  village  Jews  to  the  cities  and  convert 
them  into  manufacturers,  merchants,  and  artisans,  is  a  matter  of 
impossibility,  for  even  the  Jewish  population  already  settled  in  the 
cities  is  scarcely  able  to  make  a  living,  and  to  create  factories  and 
mills  artificially  would  be  throwing  money  into  the  water, 
especially  as  the  exchequer  has  no  free  millions  at  its  disposal  to 
enable  it  to  grant  subsidies  to  manufacturers.  The  recent  experi- 
ments of  the  Government  have  had  no  effect.  On  the  contrary,  the 
Jewish  people  "  has  not  only  remained  in  the  same  state  of 
poverty,  but  has  even  been  reduced  to  greater  destitution,  as  a 
result  of  having  been  forced  out  of  a  pursuit  which  had  provided 
it  with  a  livelihood  for  several  centuries."  Hence,  "  the  Commit- 
tee, realizing  this  situation  of  a  whole  people,  and  being  afraid 
that  the  continuation  of  compulsory  measures,  in  the  present 
political  circumstances,  may  only  exasperate  this  people,  already 
restricted  to  the  utmost,  deems  it  necessary  ....  to  put  a  resolute 
stop  to  the  now  prevailing  methods  of  interference  by  allowing 
the  Jews  to  remain  in  their  former  abodes  and  by  setting  free  the 
pursuits  suspended  by  Clause  34." 

The  Government  submitted.  In  5'ielding  it  was  moved 
not  so  much  by  the  clear  and  incontrovertible  arguments 
of  the  Committee,  which  amounted  to  a  deadly  criticism  of 
the  current  system  of  state  patronage,  as  by  the  "  political 
circumstances  "  alluded  to  in  the  concluding  sentences  of  the 
report.  ISTapoleon's  army  was  marching  towards  the  Russian 
frontier.  The  war  which  was  to  embroil  the  whole  of  Eussia 
and  subsequently  the  whole  of  Europe  had  broken  out.  At 
such  a  moment,  when  the  French  army  was  flooding  the  whole 
of  Western  Eussia,  it  seemed  far  more  dangerous  to  create 
groups  of  persecuted  and  embittered  outcasts  than  it  had  been 


enli(;iitl:ned  absolutism  of  Alexander  l    ;;55 

in  1807,  when  the  French  invasion  was  merely  a  matter  of 
apprehension.  In  these  circumstances  the  question  whether 
the  Jews  should  be  left  in  the  villages  and  hamlets  found  a 
favorable  solution  of  itself,  without  any  special  ukase.  Stirred 
to  the  core,  Eussia,  in  the  moment  of  national  danger,  had  to 
rely  for  her  salvation  upon  the  strenuous  exertions  of  all  her 
inhabitants,  Jews  included. 

4.  The   Pateiotic   Attitude  of   Russian  Jewry  during 
THE  Wai!  of  1812 

The  part  played  by  the  Jews  in  the  War  of  1812  was  not 
so  insignificant  as  historians  are  generally  disposed  to  assume, 
being  misled  by  the  fact  that  the  Jews  of  Eussia  were  not 
yet  drafted  into  the  army.  It  must  be  borne  in  mind  that 
the  great  war  was  enacted  in  western  Eussia,  more  par- 
ticularly in  northwestern  Eussia,  on  territory  inhabited 
by  a  compact  Jewish  population  scattered  all  over  the  cities, 
townlets,  and  villages.  The  sympathy  of  this  population 
with  one  or  the  other  of  the  belligerents  frequently  decided 
the  success  or  failure  of  the  detachment  situated  in  that 
locality.  It  is  a  well-known  fact  that  the  Poles  of  the 
western  region  were  mostly  on  the  side  of  Napoleon,  from 
whom  they  expected  the  restoration  of  the  Polish  kingdom. 

As  for  the  Eussian  Jews,  their  attitude  towards  the  bel- 
ligerent parties  was  of  a  more  complicated  character.  The 
recent  persecutions  of  the  rural  Jews  were  apt,  on  the  one 
hand,  to  set  their  hearts  against  the  Eussian  Government, 
and,  had  these  persecutions  continued,  the  French  would  have 
been  hailed  by  the  oppressed  Jews  as  their  saviors.  But  the  ex- 
pulsions from  the  villages  had  been  stopped  three  years  before 
the  war,  and  the  Jews  anticipated  the  complete  repeal  of 


356  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA   AND  POLAND 

the  cruel  law,  whicii  had  been  so  severely  condemned  in  the 
official  report  of  the  Committee  laid  before  the  Tzar  in  the 
beginning  of  1812.  Moreover,  the  deputies  of  the  Kahals, 
who  had  been  summoned  twice  to  share  in  the  work  of  the 
Government  (in  1803  and  1807),  had  an  opportunity  to  con- 
vince themselves  that  Alexander  I.'s  Government  was  on  the 
whole  favorably  disposed  towards  the  Jews,  and  its  mistakes 
were  merely  the  outcome  of  the  wrong  system  of  state  patron- 
age, of  the  desire  of  the  Government  to  make  the  Jews  happy, 
according  to  its  own  lights,  by  employing  compulsory  and  "  cor- 
rectional "  measures. 

On  the  other  hand,  Napoleon's  halo  had  been  considerably 
dimmed  even  in  the  eyes  of  the  Jews  of  Western  Europe,  now 
tha^  the  results  of  his  "  Jewish  Parliaments  "  had  come  to 
light.  The  Jews  of  Eussia,  who  were  all  Orthodox,  regarded 
Xapoleon's  reform  schemes  as  fraught  with  danger,  and  looked 
upon  the  substitution  of  Kahal  autonomy  by  a  consistorial 
organization  as  subversive  of  Judaism.  The  Hasidic  party, 
again,  which  was  the  most  conservative,  felt  indebted  to  Alex- 
ander I.,  who,  in  a  clause  of  the  Statute  of  1804,  bearing  on 
Jewish  sects,  had  bestowed  upon  the  Hasidim  the  right  of 
segregating  themselves  in  separate  synagogues  wuthin  the  com- 
munities. The  leader  of  the  White  Kussian  Hasidim,  Eabbi 
Shneor  Zalman,  who  at  first  had  suffered  from  the  suspicious- 
ness of  the  Russian  Government,  but  was  afterwards  declared 
to  be  politically  "  dependable,"  voiced  the  sentiments  of  the  in- 
fjuential  Jewish  circles  towards  the  two  belligerent  sovereigns 
in  the  following  prediction  : 

Should  Bonaparte  win,  the  wealth  of  the  Jews  will  be  increased, 
and  their  [civic]  position  will  be  raised.  At  the  same  time  their 
hearts  will  be  estranged  from  our  Heavenly  Father.    Should  how- 


ENLIGHTENED   ABSOLUTISM  OF  ALEXANDER  I.     357 

ever  our  Tzar  Alexander  win,  the  Jewish  hearts  will  draw  nearer 
to  our  Heavenly  Father,  though  the  poverty  of  Israel  may  become 
greater  and  his  position  lower. 

This  was  tantamount  to  saying  tliat  civic  rightlessness  was 
preferable  to  civic  equality,  inasmuch  as  the  former  bade  fair  to 
guarantee  the  inviolability  of  the  religious  life,  while  the  latter 
threatened  to  bring  about  its  disintegration. 

All  these  circumstances,  coupled  with  the  unconscious  re- 
sentment of  the  masses  against  the  invading  enemy,  brought 
about  the  result  that  the  Jews  of  the  Northwest  everywhere 
gave  tokens  of  their  devotion  to  the  interests  of  Eussia,  and 
frequently  rendered  substantial  services  to  the  Russian  army 
in  its  commissary  and  reconnoitring  branches.  The  well-known 
Russian  partisan  '  Davidov  relates  that 

the  frame  of  mind  of  the  Polish  inhabitants  of  Grodno  was 
very  unfavorable  to  us.  The  Jews  living  in  Poland  were,  on  the 
other  hand,  all  so  devoted  to  us  that  they  refused  to  serve  the 
enemy  as  scouts,  and  often  gave  us  most  valuable  information 
concerning  him. 

As  Polish  officials  could  not  be  relied  upon,  it  became 
necessary  to  intrust  the  whole  police  department  of  Grodno  to 
the  Jewish  Kahal.  The  Governor  of  Vilna  testified  that  "  the 
Jewish  people  had  shown  particular  devotion  to  the  Russian 
Government  during  the  presence  of  the  enemy." 

The  Poles  were  irritated  by  this  pro-Russian  attitude  of  the 
Jews.  There  were  rumors  afloat  that  the  Poles  had  made 
ready  to  massacre  all  Jews  and  Russians  in  the  Governments 
of  Vilna  and  Minsk  and  in  the  province  of  Bialystok.  There 
were  numerous  instances  of  self-sacrifice.    It  happened  more 

f  The  word  is  used  here  in  the  sense  of  leader  of  partisan, 
i.  e.  irregular,  troops.  Davidov  attained  to  great  fame  during  the 
War  of  1812,  in  which  h.e  interfered  effectively  with  the  com- 
munications of  the  French.] 


358  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA   AND  POLAND 

than  once  that  Jews  who  had  sheltered  Russian  couriers  witli 
dispatches  in  their  houses,  or  had  escorted  them  to  tlie  Russian 
headquarters,  or  who  had  furnished  information  to  the  Rus- 
sian commanders  as  to  the  position  of  the  enemy's  army,  were 
caught  by  the  French,  and  sliot  or  hanged.  Alexander  I.  was 
aware  of  these  deeds.  While  on  a  visit  to  Kalish,  he  granted 
an  audience  to  the  members  of  the  Kahal,  and  engaged  in  a 
lengthy  conversation  with  them.  Among  the  Jews  of  the  dis- 
trict appeals  written  in  the  Jewish  vernacular  were  circulated, 
in  which  the  Jews  were  called  upon  to  offer  up  prayers  for  tlie 
success  of  Alexander  I.,  who  would  release  the  Jewish  people 
from  bondage.  Altogether  the  wave  of  patriotism  which  swept 
over  Russia  engulfed  the  Jewish  masses  to  a  considerable 
extent. 

The  headquarters  of  the  Russian  army,  which  was  now 
marching  towards  the  West,  harbored,  during  the  years  1812- 
1813,  two  Jewish  deputies,  Sundel  Sonnenberg  of  Grodno  and 
Leyser  (Eliezer)  Dillon  of  Neswizh.  On  the  one  hand  they 
maintained  connections  with  the  leading  Government  officials, 
and  conveyed  to  them  the  wishes  of  tlie  Jewisli  communities. 
On  the  other  hand  they  kept  up  relations  witli  the  Kalials, 
which  they  informed  regularly  of  the  intentions  of  the  Govern- 
ment. Presumably  these  two  public-spirited  men  played  a 
twofold  role  at  headquarters:  that  of  large  purveyors,  who 
received  orders  directly  from  the  Russian  commissariat,  and 
forwarded  them  to  their  local  agents,  and  that  of  representa- 
tives of  the  Kahals,  whose  needs  they  communicated  to  the 
Tzar  and  the  highest  dignitaries  of  the  crown.  In  those  uneasy 
times  the  Government  found  it  to  its  advantage  to  keep  at  its 
headquarters  representatives  of  the  Jewish  population,  who 
might  sway  the  minds  of  their  coreligionists,  in  accordance 


ENLIGHTENED  ABSOLUTISM  OF  ALEXANDER  I.      359 

with  the  character  of  the  political  instructions  issued  by  it. 
In  June,  1814,  during  his  stay  abroad  in  Bruchsal  (Ger- 
many) ,  Alexander  requested  these  deputies  to  assure  "  the  Jew- 
isli  Kahals  of  his  most  gracious  favor,"  and  promised  to  issue 
shortly  "  an  ordinance  concerning  their  wishes  and  requests  for 
the  immediate  amelioration  of  their  present  condition."  It 
seems  that  Alexander  I.,  who  was  still  under  the  spell  of  the  ac- 
counts of  Jewish  patriotism,  was  inclined  at  that  moment  to 
improve  their  lot.  But  the  general  reaction  which,  after  the 
Vienna  Congress  of  1815,  fell  like  a  blight  upon  Europe  and 
Russia  proved  fatal  also  to  the  Russian  Jews. 

5.  Economic  and  Ageicultural  Experiments 

The  political  upheavals  of  the  transition  period  (1789- 
1815)  were  bound  to  react  violently  on  the  economic  status 
of  Eusso-Polish  Jewry.  The  vast  Jewish  population  of  West- 
ern Eussia  was  at  that  time  divided  into  two  parts:  the 
larger  part  resided  in  the  towns  and  townlets,  the  smaller 
lived  in  the  villages.  The  efforts  made  by  the  Eussian  Govern- 
ment during  that  period,  to  squeeze  the  whole  Jewish  popula- 
tion into  the  urban  estates  and  to  single  out  from  its  midst 
a  new  class  of  agriculturists,  failed  to  produce  the  desired 
effect.  Instead  it  succeeded  in  disturbing  the  former  equili- 
brium between  the  urban  and  the  rural  occupations  of  the  Jews. 

The  urban  Jew  was  either  a  business  man  or  an  artisan  or  a 
.-a  loon-keeper.  In  many  cities  the  Jewish  mercantile  element 
was  numerically  superior  to  the  Christian.  The  increased 
Jewish  activity  in  the  export  trade  is  particularly  noticeable. 
Jewish  merchants  traveled  annually  in  large  numbers  to  the 
fairs  abroad,  particularly  to  that  of  Leipsic,  to  buy  merchan- 
dise, principally  dry  goods,  at  the  same  time  exporting  the 


360  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

products  of  Poland  and  Russia,  such  as  furs,  skins,  etc.  The 
gradual  absorption  of  Polish  territory  by  Eussia  opened  up 
a  new,  immense  market,  that  of  the  central  Eussian  provinces, 
for  the  goods  imported  from  abroad.  It  was  natural  that  the 
Jews  began  to  flock  to  those  provinces.  But  their  way  was  at 
once  blocked  by  the  local  Eussian  merchants,  who  began  to 
clamor  against  Jewish  competition,  and  forced  the  Government 
to  recognize  the  monopoly  of  native  "  interests,"  to  the  detri- 
ment of  the  consumer.' 

True,  the  monopolists  did  not  succeed  altogether  in  shutting 
the  Eussian  interior  to  foreign  cheap  goods  and  finery,  which  the 
Jewish  merchants  still  continued  to  import,  under  the  clause 
in  the  Statute  of  1804  which  granted  Jews  the  right  of  visiting 
the  interior  Governments  on  special  gubernatorial  passports. 
Yet  an  untrammeled  development  of  Jewish  commerce  was  ren- 
dered impossible  by  this  artificial  barrier  between  Western 
and  Eastern  Eussia. 

The  second  urban  profession,  handicrafts,  was  considered 
of  lower  rank  than  commerce.  It  was  pursued  by  the  poorest 
class  of  the  population.  Artisan  labor  commanded  very  low 
prices.  Purely  Jewish  trade-unions  were  rare,  and  when  a 
Jewish  artisan  summoned  enough  courage  to  leave  his  native 
townlet  and  seek  employment  in  a  large  city,  he  was  sure  to 
encounter  the  animosity  of  the  organized  Christian  guilds. 
We  have  seen  that  before  the  second  partition  of  Poland  such 
an  "  encounter "  assumed  the  shape  of  a  pogrom  in  the 
Polish  capital.'' 

By  the  side  of  the  store  and  the  workshop  stood  the  public 
house  or  saloon,  which  was  generally  connected  with  an  inn 

'  Compare  the  prohibition  barring  Jews  from  registering  in  the 
mercantMe  guilds  of  Moscow  and  Smolensk,  p.  315. 
-  See  p.  286  and  p.  287. 


1::.\L1GHTEXED  ABSOLUTISM  OF  ALEXANDER  L      JGl 

or  a  liostelry.  The  sale  of  liquor  in  the  cities  depended 
primarily  on  the  peasants  arriving  from  the  villages  on  festival 
and  market  days.  On  the  whole  the  liquor  traffic  occupied 
a  subordinate  place  in  the  cities.  Its  mainstay  was  in  the 
villages. 

All  serious  observers  of  the  economic  status  of  the  Jews 
at  that  time  bear  witness  to  the  fact  that  in  the  majority 
of  cities  Jewish  labor  formed  the  corner-stone  of  a  civilized 
economic  life,  that  without  the  Jew  it  was  impossible  to 
buy,  or  to  sell,  or  to  have  any  kind  of  article  made.  The 
Jew,  who  was  satisfied  with  small  wages  and  profits,  was 
thereby  able  to  lower  both  the  cost  of  production  and  the  price 
of  merchandise.  He  was  content  with  a  pittance,  his  physical 
needs  being  extraordinarily  limited.  Thanks  to  the  mediation 
of  the  ubiquitous  Jewish  business  man,  the  peasant  was  able  to 
dispose  of  his  products  on  the  spot,  even  those  which  because 
of  their  small  value  would  not  be  worth  carrying  to  the  city. 
In  spite  of  all  his  indefatigable,  feverish  labors,  the  Jew  was  on 
the  average  as  poor  as  the  peasant,  except  that  he  was  free  from 
the  vice  of  drunkenness,  one  of  the  sources  of  the  peasant's 
economic  misery.  The  poverty  of  the  Jew  was  the  artificial 
result  of  the  fact  that  the  cities  and  townlets  were  overcrowded 
with  petty  tradesmen  and  artisans,  and  this  congestion  was 
further  aggravated  by  the  systematic  removal  of  the  Jews 
from  their  age-long  rural  occupations  and  the  consequent 
influx  of  village  Jews  into  the  towns. 

It  is  necessary  to  point  out  that  when  the  oflScial  records 
harp  on  the  "  liquor  traffic  "  in  the  villages  as  the  sole  occupa- 
tion of  Jews,  they  fail  to  appreciate  the  many-sidedness  of  the 
rural  pursuits  of  the  Jews,  which  were  connected  with  the 
liquor  traffic,  to  be  sure,  but  were  by  no  means  identical  with  it. 


3G2  Tl^E  JEWS  IN   PiUSSIA   AND   POLAND 

While  leasing  from  the  .squire  or  (lie  ejowii  ihu  right  of  dis- 
tilling, the  Jew  farmed  at  the  same  time  other  items  of  rural 
economy,  such  as  the  dairies,  the  mills,  and  the  fishing  ponds. 
He  was  furthermore  engaged  in  buying  grain  from  the  peas- 
ants and  selling  them  at  the  same  time  such  indi.?pensal)le 
articles  as  salt,  utensils,  agricultural  tools,  etc.,  imported  by  him 
from  the  town.  He  often  combined  in  his  person  the  occupa- 
tions of  liquor-dealer,  shopkeeper,  and  produce  merchant.  Tlie 
road  leading  from  the  village  to  the  city  was  dotted  with 
Jewish  inns  or  public  houses,  whicli,  before  the  age  of  rail- 
roads, served  as  halting-places  for  travelers.  This  wliole 
economic  structure,  which  had  been  built  up  gradually  in  the 
course  of  centuries,  the  Russian  Government  made  its  business 
to  demolish.  As  early  as  the  reign  of  Catherine  11.  the  gov- 
ernors frequently  drove  the  Jewish  villagers  into  the  cities, 
acting  under  the  "  organic  law  "  which  makes  it  incumbent 
upon  Jews  to  "  register  among  the  merchants  or  burghers." 
The  ambiguous  ukase  of  1795,  to  the  effect,  that  "  endeavors 
be  made  to  transplant  the  Jews  into  the  District  towns,  so  that 
these  people  may  not  wander  about  to  the  detriment  of 
society,"  gave  the  zealous  bureaucrats  a  free  hand.  When  the 
Law  of  1804  ordered  the  expulsion  of  all  Jews  from  the  villages 
at  the  end  of  three  years,  many  squires,  without  waiting  for 
the  time  limit  to  expire,  refused  their  Jewish  tenants  the  right 
of  residence  and  trade  in  their  villages.  The  Jews  began  to 
rush  into  the  cities,  where  even  the  long-settled  residents 
could  not  manage  to  make  a  living. 

True,  the  Government  was  luring  the  persecuted  Jews  into 
two  new  vocations,  the  establishment  of  factories  and  of  a<yri- 
cultural  colonies.  But  the  impecunious  village  Jew  had  neither 
the  capital  nor  the  capacity  for  opening  factories.  Moreover,  it 


ENLIGHTENED  ABSOLUTISM  OF  ALEXANDER  I.     363 

was  of  no  conceivable  use  to  call  industries  artificially  into 
being,  without  having  first  secured  a  market  for  the  manufac- 
tured products.  Several  woolen  mills  had  been  founded  by 
Jews  in  Lithuania  and  Volhynia,  but  all  they  could  do  was  to 
provide  work  for  a  few  thousand  people.  It  was  thus  natural 
that  all  eyes  turned  towards  agricultural  colonization. 

The  Statute  of  1804  promised  to  provide  impecunious  Jews 
desirous  of  engaging  in  agriculture  with  free  land  in  several 
(.Tovernments,  to  grant  them  loans  for  their  equipment,  and 
exempt  them  from  taxation  for  a  number  of  years.  The 
exiled  village  Jews  clutched  at  this  promise  as  an  anchor  of 
salvation.  In  1806  several  Jewish  groups  in  the  Government 
of  Moghilev  appealed  to  the  governor  to  transfer  them  to  Xew 
Russia,  there  to  engage  in  corn-growing.  The  delegate  of 
one  of  these  groups,  Nahum  Finkelstein,  even  traveled  to 
St.  Petersburg  to  lay  the  matter  before  Minister  Kocliu- 
bay,  and  was  dispatched  by  the  latter  to  the  Government  of 
Kherson  for  the  purpose  of  inspecting  and  selecting  the  land. 
The  Minister,  acting  in  agreement  with  the  Governor  of  Kher- 
son, Duke  Richelieu,  decided  to  set  aside  separate  parcels  of 
land  in  the  steppes  of  that  region  and  to  settle  Jews  on 
them  under  the  auspices  of  the  New  Russian  "  Immigration 
Bureau."  Scarcely  had  the  two  Moghilev  groups  completed 
the  arrangements  for  their  emigration,  when  scores  of  similar 
applications  began  to  come  in  from  Jewish  groups  in  other 
Governments  of  the  Pale.  By  the  end  of  1806  the  number  of 
applicants  mounted  up  to  fifteen  hundred  families,  numbering 
some  seven  thousand  souls.  The  Russian  authorities  found 
themselves  in  an  awkward  position.  They  were  caught  unpre- 
pared for  the  transfer  of  so  many  persons  at  the  expense  of  the 
state.     In  1807  four  colonies  of  Jewish  agriculturists  were 


364  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA   AND  POLAND 

established  iu  the  Goveinineut  ol"  Kherson,  the  first  among 
the  Jewish  colonies  oJ:  South  Russia.  The  number  of  settlers 
amounted  to  some  three  hundred  families,  consisting  of  two 
thousand  souls. 

The  number  of  applicants  desirous  of  settling  on  the  land 
continued  to  increase.  In  the  course  of  1808,  when  the  expul- 
sion from  the  villages  was  in  full , swing,  the  White  Russian 
governors  bombarded  the  Minister  of  the  Interior  with  peti- 
tions to  allow  as  many  Jewish  families  as  jtossiblo  to  procee<I 
to  N'ew  Russia.  The  Governor  of  Vitebsk  reported  that  the 
rural  Jews 

have  been  unseasonably  expelled,  ruined,  and  reduced  to  beg 
gary.  A  large  part  of  them  is  without  daily  bread  and  without 
shelter,  and  they  emigrate  in  considerable  numbers  to  New 
Russia.  Many  Jews,  in  the  expectation  of  being  transplanted  to 
New  Russia,  have  sold  all  their  belongings  and  beg  leave  per- 
sistently to  go  there,  though  it  be  only  for  a  domicile. 

At  the  same  time  reports  from  the  Xew  Russian  Immigra- 
tion Bureau  and  from  Duke  Richelieu  were  constantly  reach- 
ing St.  Petersburg.  They  emphasized  the  necessity  of  stem- 
ming the  tide  of  emigrants,  in  view  of  the  fact  that  even  the 
first  parties  of  colonists  had  found  it  ditFicult  to  establish 
themselves,  while  the  new  ones  could  not  expect  to  find  either 
huts  or  any  other  accommodations.  By  the  beginning  of  1808 
the  Immigration  Bureau  was  in  charge  of  about  one  thousand 
colonist  families,  and,  in  addition,  several  thousand  immi- 
grants who  had  arrived  "  voluntarily  "  were  waiting  for  their 
turn  to  be  settled.  As  a  result  of  the  unaccustomed  climatic 
conditions  and  the  lack  of  housing  accommodations  and  provi- 
sions, disease  began  to  spread  among  the  new-comers.  All 
these  circumstances  decided  the  Government  to  put  a  tern- 


ENLIGHTENED  ABSOLUTISM  OF  ALEXANDER  I.      365 

poiai}'  stop  to  the  settliug  of  Jews  in  the  Xew  Eussian  colonies 
(ukase  of  April  6,  1810). 

Tlie  attempt  to  convert  a  part  of  the  Jewish  population 
into  agriculturists  would  undoubtedly  have  met  with  huge 
success,  had  the  Government  been  sufficiently  prepared  for 
such  a  momentous  economic  transformation.  Ten  thousand 
emigrants  had  already  gone  to  New  Russia,  and  the  com- 
pact starving  masses  were  rushing  after  them.  But  the 
Government  was  overwhelmed  by  the  difficulties  of  the  task, 
and  brought  the  whole  movement  to  a  standstill.  Simul- 
taneously a  stop  was  put  to  the  expulsion  from  the  villages  in 
the  western  Governments,  which  threatened  to  lead  to  an 
unparalleled  economic  catastrophe.  Thus,  after  many  vacilla- 
tions and  upheavals,  the  economic  structure  of  Jewish  life 
was  re-established  on  its  old  foundations — commerce,  handi- 
crafts, and  rural  occupations. 


CHAPTER  XI 

THE  INNER  LIFE  OF  EUSSIAN  JEWRY  DURING  THE 
PERIOD  OF  "  ENLIGHTENED  ABSOLUTISM  " 

1.  Kahal  Autonomy  and  City  Government 

The  system  of  state  patronage  spread  its  wings  also  over  tiio 
belf -government  of  the  Jewish  communities.  Towards  the  end 
of  Catherine  II.'s  reign  the  Government  clearly  betrayed  its 
tendency  to  curtail  the  extensive  communal  autonomy  which 
the  Jews  had  been  guaranteed  earlier,  in  177G,  when  the 
promise  of  the  Empress,  to  allow  the  Jews  of  annexed  White 
Russia  "  to  retain  their  former  liberties,"  was  still  fresh  in 
the  official  mind.  But  the  Russian  Government,  not  in  the 
habit  of  tolerating  such  "  licentiousness  "  among  its  subjects, 
looked  askance  at  the  large  economic,  spiritual,  and  judicial 
functions  granted  to  the  Kahals,  in  addition  to  their  fiscal 
duties  as  the  collecting  agencies  of  the  state  taxes.  As  a  result 
of  this  attitude,  the  ukases  of  1786  and  1795  had  limited  the 
range  of  activity  of  the  Kahals  to  spiritual  and  fiscal  affairs. 
The  "  Jewish  Constitution  "  of  1804  went  one  step  further 
by  dividing  these  two  functions  between  the  rabbinate  and  the 
Kahals,  which  had  previously  formed  one  whole.  The  rabbis 
were  given  permission  "  to  look  after  all  the  ceremonies  of  the 
Jewish  faith  and  decide  all  disputes  bearing  on  religion," 
while  the  Kahals  were  ordered  "  to  see  to  the  regular  payment 
of  the  state  taxes."  This  was  all  that  was  left  of  the  ancient 
autonomy  of  the  Jewish  communities  in  Poland,  with  its  vast 
network  of  institutions  and  central  assemblies,  or  Waads. 

It  is  apparent  that  in  real  life  the  power  of  the  communities 
was  larger  than  on  paper.    The  Jews  went  on  submitting  most 


INNER  LIFE  UNDER  ENLIGHTENED  ABSOLUTISM     36T 

of  their  cases,  even  those  involving  monetary  disputes,  to  their 
own  rabbinical  tribunals.  The  prohibition  of  imposing  the 
herem  (excommunication)  upon  obstreperous  members  of 
the  community  was  occasionally  disregarded,  since  the  "  spir- 
itual "  tribunals  had  no  other  means  of  coercion  at  their 
disposal.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Government  itself,  being  in 
need  not  only  of  the  fiscal  services  of  the  Kahals,  but  also  of 
a  responsible  organization  to  be  consulted  upon  Jewish  mat- 
ters, could  not  help  tolerating  the  extension  of  Kahal  activi- 
ties far  beyond  the  range  of  fiscal  interests.  When  the  Govern- 
ment was  desirous  of  ascertaining  the  views  of  the  Jewish 
communities  on  some  of  the  measures  planned  by  it;  it 
addressed  itself,  as  was  the  case  in  1803,  1803,  and  1807,* 
to  the  Kahals,  and  authorized  them  to  send  delegates  to  St. 
Petersburg  or  the  provincial  capitals. 

This  extension  of  Jewish  autonomy  was  a  concession  wrested 
from  the  Government  by  the  force  of  circumstances,  by  the 
power  of  a  compact  population  living  a  life  of  its  own  and 
refusing  to  efface  itself  to  the  point  of  merging  with  the  sur- 
rounding population  and  fusing  all  its  public  interests  with  the 
affairs  of  the  general  city  administration.  Yet  it  was  just  this 
"  municipalization  "  of  the  Jewish  communities  that  the  Eus- 
sian  Government  had  been  aiming  at  for  a  long  time.  From 
the  time  of  Catherine  II.  it  cherished  the  thought  of  "  destroy- 
ing Jewish  separateness,"  by  forcing  the  Jews  into  the  frame- 
work of  the  Eussian  class  organization,  particularly  into  the 
estates  of  the  merchants  and  burghers. 

When,  shortly  after  1780,  the  Jews  were  accorded  the 
liitherto  unheard-of  privilege  of  participating  in  the  city 
government  with  the  right  of  active  and  passive  suffrage  for 

*  See  pp.  337,  339,  349. 
24 


368  THE  JEWS   IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

the  magistracies  and  municipal  courts,  the  lawgivers  of  St. 
Petersburg  were  confident  that  Russian  Jewry,  in  a  transport 
of  delight,  would  throw  overboard  its  old  Kahal  autonomy, 
and  eagerly  coalesce  with  the  Christian  urban  estates,  to  form 
a  common  municipal  organization.  But  neither  the  Jews  nor 
the  Christians  justified  these  confident  expectations.  The 
former,  while  clinging  as  heretofore  to  their  time-honored 
communal  organization,  were  glad  to  participate  in  the  elec- 
tions to  the  magistracies,  in  which  up  till  then  their  traditional 
enemies,  the  Christian  merchants  and  burghers,  had  been 
the  masters,  and  in  which  they  frankly  proposed  to  protect  their 
interests,  representing  as  they  did  a  considerable  portion  of  the 
urban  population. 

But  here  they  encountered  furious  opposition  on  the  part  of 
their  Christian  fellow-residents.  In  the  two  White  Russian 
Governments  of  Vitebsk  and  Moghilev  several  Jews  had  been 
elected  to  the  magistracies  as  aldermen  and  members  of  the 
law  courts.  But  in  the  majority  of  cases  the  Christians  man- 
aged to  obtain  an  artifical  majority  and  keep  the  Jews  out 
of  the  municipal  administration.  Complaints  lodged  with  the 
central  authorities  in  St.  Petersburg  were  of  no  avail,  for  the 
Russian,  and  even  more  so  the  Polish,  burghers  regarded  the 
bestowal  of  municipal  rights  upon  the  Jews  as  a  violation  of 
their  own  chartered  privileges.  Yielding  to  this  mood  of  the 
Christian  population,  the  administrators  of  the  southwestern 
Governments  established  on  their  own  responsibility  a  restric- 
tive percentage  for  the  participation  of  Jews  in  the  magis- 
tracies, by  limiting,  even  in  places  with  a  predominatingly 
Jewish  population,  the  number  of  Jewish  members  to  be 
elected  to  the  magistracies  to  one-third.  The  representatives 
of  the  Jewish  majority  of  the  population  in  the  city  adminis- 


INNER  LIFE  UNDER  ENLIGHTENED  ABSOLUTISM     369 

tration  were  thus  iuvariably  reduced  to  a  minority,  and  were 
not  in  a  position  to  protect  the  interests  of  their  coreligionists, 
cither  in  the  assessment  of  the  municipal  taxes  or  in  the  cases 
brought  before  the  municipal  law  courts.  Here,  too,  the  pro- 
test addressed  to  St.  Petersburg  by  a  delegate  acting  on  behalf 
of  the  Podolian  Jews  did  not  remedy  the  situation. 

In  the  two  Lithuanian  Governments  which  had  fallen  into 
the  hands  of  Eussia  after  the  third  partition  of  Poland,  in 
1795,  the  Christian  opposition  scored  even  a  greater  success. 
For  here  it  became  necessary  to  suspend  altogether  the  opera- 
tion of  the  law  granting  the  Jews  representation  in  the  magis- 
tracies. When  the  Senatorial  ukase  of  1802,  making  the 
Jews  eligible  for  public  office,  became  known  in  Vilna,  the 
local  Christian  population  raised  a  cry  of  indignation.  The 
Philistine  arrogance  of  the  old  "  city  fathers,"  combined  with 
the  low  motives  of  religious  and  class  hatred,  manifested  itself 
in  a  petition  addressed  in  February,  1803,  by  the  Christian 
burgbers  of  Vilna  to  Alexander  I. 

In  this  petition  the  residents  of  Vilna  protest  against  the 
violation  of  their  ancient  privilege,  in  pursuance  of  which 
"  Jews  and  members  of  other  faiths  are  forbidden  to  hold 
office  "  in  Lithuania.  The  admission  of  Jews  to  the  magis- 
tracies is  a  misfortune  and  a  disgrace  for  the  capital  of  Lithu- 
ania, for 

they  [the  Jews]  have  not  the  slightest  conception  of  morality, 
while  their  form  of  education  does  not  fit  them  for  the  calling  of 
a  judge,  and  aPogether  this  people  can  only  maintain  itself  by  all 

kinds  of  trickery The  Christians  will  lose  all  interest  in 

accepting  public  office  once  the  Jews  are  given  the  right  to 
dominate  them. 

The  petitioners  point  out  threateningly  that  the  domination 
of  the   Jews,  i.   e.  their  participation   in   the   magistracies. 


370 


THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA   AND   POLAND 


though  it  be  limited  to  one-third  of  the  number  of  aldermen, 
will  undermine  the  people's  confidence  in  the  municipal  ad- 
ministration and  judiciary.  "  For  the  obedience  of  the  mob 
will  be  turned  into  defamation  when  the  Christian  who  enters 
the  sacred  place  [of  justice]  beholds  a  Jew  as  his  superior 
and  judge,  submission  to  whom  is  unnatural,  by  reason  of 
class  and  religion/' 

The  Christian  population  of  Kovno  resorted,  in  presenting 
a  similar  petition,  to  another  incontrovertible  argument  against 
the  admission  of  Jews  to  municipal  offices.  deferring  to 
the  cross  with  the  "sacred  figure"  of  the  cnuilixion.  which 
is  placed  on  the  court  table  for  the  administration  of  the  oath, 
the  petitioners  assert  that  the  Jewish  members  of  the  court 
"will  refuse  to  look  upon  it,  but,  by  reason  of  their  faith,  will 
think  disrespectfully  of  it,  so  that,  instead  of  judicial  im- 
partiality, there  will  be  mockery  of  the  Christian  law."  The 
Government  found  these  arguments  convincing,  and  in  1805 
repealed  the  ukase  of  the  Senate  concerning  the  election  of  Jews 
to  the  magistracies  of  Lithuania. 

In  this  way  the  stolid  rancor  of  the  "  privileged  "  burgliers 
in  some  places  handicapped  the  activity  of  the  Jews  in  the 
city  administration,  and  in  others  entirely  suppressed  it.  The 
Jewish  communities,  backward  though  they  were,  displayed 
sufficient  civic  courage  to  send  their  representatives  to  the 
camp  of  the  enemy  to  work  in  common  with  him  for  the  bene- 
fit of  the  whole  urban  population.  But  the  narrow-minded 
burghers,  who  were  thoroughly  saturated  with  medieval  preju- 
dices, would  not  recognize  the  Jews  as  their  fellow-townsmen. 
The  Jews  had  to  reckon  with  this  coarse  conservatism  of  the 
surrounding  population.  They  were  still  able  to  fall  back  upon 
their  own  communal  self-government,  and,  had  their  social 


INNER  LIFE  UNDER  ENLIGHTENED  ABSOLUTISM     371 

energies  been  directed  towards  that  end,  the  old  Kahal  auton- 
omy, in  spite  of  all  Government  restrictions,  might  to  a  cer- 
tain extent  have  come  into  its  own  again.  But  another  factor 
thwarted  this  revival — the  deep  rift  in  the  Russian  Jewish 
community,  which  began  with  the  rise  of  Hasidism  in  the 
second  half  of  the  eighteenth  century,  and  was  an  accomplished 
fact  at  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century. 

2.  The  Hasidic  Schism  and  the  Intervention  of  the 
Government 

The  period  of  Poland's  partitions  was  also  a  period  of  divi- 
sions within  Polish  Jewry.  The  external  division  was  accom- 
panied by  an  internal  split ;  the  political  partition,  by  a  spirit- 
ual schism.  The  body  of  Polish  Jewry  was  divided  among  Rus- 
sia, Austria,  and  Prussia,  and  its  soul  between  Rabbinism  and 
Hasidism.  There  was  even  a  significant  coincidence  in  dates : 
the  first  declaration  against  Hasidism  by  the  rabbinate  of 
Vilna,  which  started  the  religious  schism,  was  issued  in  1772, 
in  the  year  of  the  first  Polish  partition,  and  the  second  em- 
phatic declaration  of  the  same  rabbinate,  which  completed  the 
schism,  followed  close  upon  the  third  partition  of  Poland,  in 
1796. 

The  interval  between  these  two  dates  represents  one  continu- 
ous stretch  of  Hasidic  triumphs.  The  Russian  Southwest, 
Volhpiia,  the  province  of  Kiev,  and  Podolia,  had  by  the  end  of 
the  period,  been  almost  completely  conquered  by  the  Hasidim. 
With  the  exception  of  a  few  cities,  they  now  formed  the  pre- 
dominating element  in  the  communities;  their  ritual  was 
adopted  in  synagogue  worship,  and  their  spiritual  rulers,  the 
Tzaddiks,  exercised  control  over  the  official  rabbinate.  As  far 
as  the  Xorthwest  is  concerned,  Hasidism  had  managed  during 


373  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

that  interval  to  obtain  a  foothold  in  White  Kussia,  the  only 
Polish  province  Avliich  for  over  twenty  years  had  been  under 
Russian  dominion,  and  thus  politically  severed  from  the  rest 
of  curtailed  Poland.  Under  the  leadership  of  the  Tzaddik 
Shneor  Zalman  of  Lozno,  a  strong  Hasidic  center  had  been  built 
up  in  that  part  of  the  Northwest,  but  there  were  yet  no  compact 
Hasidic  communities  in  that  region.  In  the  majority  of  towns 
the  communities  were  composed  of  botli  elements,  Hasidim  and 
their  opponents,  the  Rabbinists,  wlio  were  nicknamed  Mithnag- 
dim  ("Protestants"),  the  preponderance  being  now  on  this 
side,  now  on  the  other,  a  state  of  affairs  which  gave  rise  to 
endless  dissensions  in  the  Kahals  and  synagogues. 

In  Lithuania  alone,  the  stronghold  of  Rabbinism,  Hasidism 
failed  to  take  root.  Here  a  few  small  Hasidic  groups  were 
ensconced  in  a  number  of  cities.  They  held  their  services  in 
modest  rooms  in  private  residences  (minyanim) ,  which  they 
were  often  forced  to  hide  from  the  gaze  of  the  hostile  Kahal 
authorities.  In  Yilna,  the  residence  of  the  great  zealot  of 
Rabbinism,  Elijah  Gaon,  the  Hasidim  constituted  an  "  illegal  " 
secret  organization.  Only  in  the  suburb  of  Pinsk,  in  Karlin, 
the  Hasidim  succeeded  in  establishing  themselves  firmly,  and 
could  boast  of  having  their  own  synagogues  and  Tzaddiks.* 
Karlin  became  the  seat  of  a  Hasidic  propaganda  extending  all 
over  Lithuania,  where  the  Hasidim  were  accordingly  nick- 
named "  Karliners." 

The  second  and  third  partition  of  Poland,  which  united 
Lithuania  and  White  Russia  under  the  sovereignty  of  Russia, 
tended  to  buoy  up  the  oppressed  Lithuanian  Hasidim,  who 

^  One  of  these  Tzaddiks,  Rabbi  Solomon  (Shelomo)  of  Karlin, 
lost  his  life,  according  to  Hasidic  tradition,  during  the  riots  of  the 
Russo-Polish  confederate  troops  in  the  district  of  Minsk. 


INNER  LIFE  UNDER  ENLIGHTENED  ABSOLUTISM     3^3 

could  now  join  forces  against  the  common  enemy  with  their 
brethren  all  over  the  northwestern  region.  The  Hasidic  propa- 
ganda took  on  new  courage.  To  enhance  the  success  of  their 
missionary  activity,  the  Hasidim  spread  a  rumor,  that  the 
former  anti-Hasidic  thunderer,  the  veteran  Eabbi  Elijah  Gaon, 
was  sorry  for  all  the  hostile  acts  he  had  committed  against  the 
sectarians,  and  that  in  consequence  the  excommunication  form- 
erly hurled  by  him  against  them  was  no  longer  valid.  ^Vhen 
this  clever  ruse  became  known  in  Vilna,  the  indignant  cham- 
pions of  Rabbinism  prompted  the  aged  Gaon  to  publish  an 
epistle  in  which  he  reaffirmed  his  former  attitude  towards  the 
"  heretics,"  and  declared  that  all  the  herems  previously  issued 
against  them  remained  in  force  (May,  1796).  The  epistle  was 
intrusted  to  two  envoys,  who  were  dispatched  from  Vilna  to  a 
number  of  cities,  for  the  purpose  of  stirring  up  an  anti-Hasidic 
agitation.  When  the  envoys  arrived  in  Minsk,  and  set  about 
executing  their  instructions,  the  Hasidim  started  a  rumor  to 
the  effect  that  the  Gaon's  signature  under  the  epistle  was  not 
genuine.  The  Kahal  of  Minsk  sent  an  inquiry  to  Vilna,  and  in 
reply  received,  in  September,  1796,  a  ncAv  energetic  appeal  of 
the  Gaon  addressed  to  all  the  gubernatorial  Kahals  of  Lithu- 
ania, White  Eussia,  Volhynia,  and  Podolia. 

Ye  mountains  of  Israel — cried  the  great  zealot — ye  spiritual 
shepherds,  and  ye  lay  leaders  of  every  Government,  also  ye,  the 
heads  of  the  Kahals  of  Moghilev,  Polotzk,  Zhitomir,  Vinnitza,  and 
Kamenetz-Podolsk,  you  hold  in  your  hands  a  hammer  wherewith 
you  may  shatter  the  plotters  of  evil,  the  enemies  of  light,  the 
foes  of  the  [Jewish]  people.  Woe  unto  this  generation!  They 
[the  Hasidim]  violate  the  Law,  distort  our  teachings,  and  set  up 
a  new  covenant;  they  lay  snares  in  the  house  of  the  Lord,  and 
give  a  perverted  exposition  of  the  tenets  of  our  faith.  It  be- 
hooves us  to  avenge  the  Law  of  the  Lord,  it  behooves  us  to  punish 


374  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

these  madmen  before  the  whole  world,  for  their  own  improvement. 
Let  none  have  pity  on  them  and  grant  them  shelter!  ....  Gird 
yourselves  with  zeal  in  the  najae  of  the  Lord! 

In  calling  to  arms  against  the  Hasidim  in  these  fulminant 
terms,  the  venerable  knight  of  Rabbinism  was  moved  by  the 
profound  conviction  that  the  "  new  sect,"  which  by  that  time 
numbered  its  adherents  by  the  hundreds  of  thousands,  was 
leading  the  Jewish  religion  and  nation  to  ruin,  because  it 
was  rending  asunder  the  Jewish  camp  internally  while  the 
political  upheavals  were  severing  it  externally.  He  was  more- 
over alarmed  by  the  luxuriant  growth  of  the  cult  of  the 
Tzaddiks,  or  miracle-workers,  which  constituted  a  menace  to 
the  purity  of  the  Jewish  doctrine. 

The  Gaon's  ire  was  particularly  aroused  by  a  work  published 
in  the  same  year  as  his  epistle  (179G),  by  TJabbi  Shneor 
Zalman,  the  head  of  the  White  Russian  Hasidim.  The  work 
was  familiarly  called  Tanyo^  and  contained  a  bold  exposition 
of  the  pantheistic  doctrine  of  Hasidism,  which  the  champions 
of  the  established  dogma  were  prone  to  regard  as  blasphemy 
and  heresy."  The  Gaon's  proclamation  hinted  at  this  work,  and 
its  author  felt  painfully  hurt  by  the  attack.  Shneor  Zalman 
responded  in  a  counter-epistle,  in  which  he  tried  to  prove  that 
the  patriarch  of  Rabbinism  had  been  misinformed  about  the 
true  essence  of  Hasidism,  and  he  invited  his  opponent  to  a 
literary  dispute  for  the  purpose  of  elucidating  the  truth  and 
"  restoring  peace  in  Irsael."    But  the  Gaon  refused  to  enter 

[*  The  title  of  the  work  is  Likkute  Amarim,  "  Collected  Dis- 
courses."   It  is  called  Tanyo  ^rom  the  first  word.] 

^  Among  the  incriminated  ideas  was  that  of  the  presence  of  the 
Deity  in  all  existing  things  and  in  all.  even  sinful,  thoughts,  and 
the  concomitant  mystical  theory  of  "  raising  the  sparks  to  the 
source,"  i.  e.  extracting  good  from  evil,  righteousness  from  sin- 
fulness, and  pure  passion  £rom  impure  impulses. 


INNER  LIFE  UNDER  ENLIGHTENED  ABSOLUTISM     375 

into  polemics  with  a  "  heretic,"  In  the  meantime  the  Vilna 
epistle  continued  to  circulate  in  many  communities,  and  gave 
rise  to  severe  conflicts  between  Mithnagdim  and  Hasidim,  the 
former  as  a  rule  taking  the  offensive. 

Exasperated  to  the  point  of  madness  by  these  persecutions, 
the  Hasidic  association  of  Yilna  was  stung  into  perpetrating 
an  act  of  gross  tactlessness.  When,  in  the  fall  of  1797,  about  a 
year  after  the  publication  of  his  last  circular,  the  aged  Gaon 
closed  his  eyes,  and  the  whole  community  of  Vilna  was  plunged 
into  mourning,  the  local  Hasidic  society  met  in  a  private  house 
and  indulged  in  a  gay  drinking  bout,  to  celebrate  the  deliver- 
ance of  the  sect  from  its  principal  enemy.  This  ugly  demon- 
stration arranged  on  the  day  of  the  funeral  raised  a  storm  of 
indignation  throughout  the  community.  Before  leaving  the 
cemetery,  the  leaders  of  the  community,  standing  at  the  Gaon's 
grave,  pledged  themselves  solemnly  to  wreak  vengeance  upon 
the  Hasidim.  On  the  following  day  the  Kahal  elders  were 
called  to  a  special  meeting,  at  which  a  series  of  repressive 
measures  against  the  Hasidim  was  adopted.  Apart  from  the 
measures  to  be  made  public,  such  as  a  new  bull  of  excom- 
munication against  the  sectarians,  the  meeting  passed  several 
resolutions  which  were  to  remain  confidential.  A  special 
committee  of  five  Kahal  members  was  appointed,  and  was 
vested  with  large  powers,  for  the  purpose  of  grappling  with  the 
"  heresy."  Subsequent  events  proved  that  among  the  contem- 
plated means  of  warfare  was  included  the  plan  of  informing 
against  the  leaders  of  the  sect  to  the  Russian  Government. 

It  did  not  take  long  for  the  disgraceful  scheme  to  be  put 
into  action.  Soon  the  Prosecutor-General  in  St.  Petersburg, 
Lopukhin,  received  a  denunciation  directing  his  attention  "  to 
the  political  misdeeds  perpetrated  by  the  chief  of  the  Karliner 


376  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

[HasidieJ  sect,  Zalman  Borukhovich  [son  of  Boiuklij,"  and 
his  fellow-workers  in  Lithuania.  Under  the  influence  of  this 
denunciation,  Lopukhin,  acting  in  the  name  of  the  Tzar, 
ordered  the  local  guheriiatorial  administration,  early  in  the  fall 
of  1798,  to  arrest  Zalman,  the  head  of  the  sect,  in  the  townlet  of 
Lozno,  together  with  twenty-two  of  his  accomplices  who  were 
found  in  Litluuiuia.  Zahnan  was  apprehended  and  dispatched 
post-haste  to  St.  Petersburg,  accompanied  by  "  a  strong  con- 
voy"; his  incriminated  followers  remained  under  arrest  in 
Vilna. 

Zalman  was  arraigned  before  the  so-called  "  Secret  Expe- 
dition," a  department  which  dealt  with  crimes  of  a  political 
nature.  A  long  bill  of  indictments  was  read  out  to  him.  He 
was  accused  of  being  the  founder  of  a  harmful  religious  sect, 
which  had  changed  the  order  of  divine  service  among  Jews, 
of  spreading  pernicious  ideas,  and  collecting  funds  for  mys- 
terious purposes  in  Palestine.  The  cross-examination  clearly 
implied  the  charge  of  political  disloyalty.  To  all  questions 
laid  before  him,  the  accused  gave  an  elaborate  written  reply 
in  Hebrew.  Zalman's  defense,  which  was  translated  from 
the  Hebrew  into  Russian,  produced  a  favorable  impression  in 
Government  circles.  Acting  upon  the  report  submitted  to  him 
by  the  Prosecutor-General  respecting  "  all  the  circumstances 
revealed  by  the  investigation,"  Tzar  Paul  I.  issued  an  order 
to  liberate  Zalman  and  the  other  sectarian  chiefs  who  had  been 
placed  under  arrest,  but  to  keep  "  a  strict  watch  over  them  as 
to  whether  there  exists,  or  is  liable  to  come  into  existence,  a 
secret  relationship  or  correspondence  between  them  and  those 
who  entertain  perverted  notions  concerning  the  authorities  and 
the  form  of  Government.''  Towards  the  end  of  1798  Zalman 
was  allowed  to  return  home,  and  the  other  prisoners  were  like- 
wise set  at  liberty. 


INNER  LIFE  UNDER  ENLIGHTENED  ABSOLUTISM     377 

Now  it  was  the  turn  of  the  Hasidim  to  retaliate  on  their 
persecutors.  In  view  of  the  fact  that  the  persecutions  against 
them  had  been  instigated  by  the  Kahal  elders  of  Vilna,  who 
had  composed  the  "  Committee  of  Five,"  the  Hasidim  made 
up  their  mind  to  depose  these  elders  and  put  their  own  par- 
tisans in  their  places.  With  the  help  of  bakhshish  the  Vilna 
Hasidim  managed  to  secure  the  good-will  of  the  gubernatorial 
administration.  In  the  beginning  of  1799  they  lodged  a  com- 
plaint with  the  local  authorities  against  the  Kahal  elders, 
charging  them  with  having  perpetrated  all  kinds  of  abuses, 
including  the  embezzlement  of  public  funds.  This  action  re- 
sulted in  the  removal  and  imprisonment  of  several  elders. 
Under  oflBcial  pressure  their  places  were  filled  by  new  elders, 
who  either  were  themselves  Hasidim  or  had  been  recom- 
mended by  them.  The  community  of  Vilna  was  rent  in  twain. 
One  section  remained  true  to  the  dismissed  elders,  the  other 
stood  up  for  the  newly-elected.  The  warring  factions  were 
busy  sending  complaints  and  denunciations  directed  against 
each  other  to  the  Government  in  St.  Petersburg.  The  canker 
of  "  informing,'^  which,  perhaps  not  accidentally,  had  de- 
veloped in  the  first  years  of  Eussian  rule  in  Lithuania, 
brought  to  the  front  one  hideous  personality,  a  rabbi-informer 
by  the  name  of  Avigdor  Haimovich  (son  of  Hayyim),  of  Pinsk. 

Avigdor,  formerly  rabbi  of  Pinsk  and  the  surrounding 
district,  had  been  dismissed  from  office  owing  to  the  intrigues 
of  the  Hasidic  members  of  the  community,  who  were  his 
opponents.  What  Avigdor  lamented  most  was  the  loss  of 
revenue.  For  a  long  time  the  dethroned  shepherd  had  been 
dragging  his  flock  through  the  magistracies  and  law  courts. 
Having  failed  in  his  eflorts,  he  decided  to  wreak  vengeance 
upon  the   leader  of  the  sect  responsible  for   his   ruin.     In 


;378  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA   AND  POLAND 

the  beginning  of  1800  Avigdor  addressed  an  elaborate  peti- 
tion to  Tzar  Paul  I.,  in  which  he  described  the  Ilasidic  sect 
as  "a  pernicious  and  dangerous  organization,"  which  was  con- 
tinuing the  work  of  the  former  Messianic  Sabbatians.  By  a 
vast  array  of  distorted  quotations  from  Ilasidic  literature  the 
informer  endeavored  to  prove  that  the  teachers  of  the  sect 
enjoined  upon  their  followers  to  fear  only  God  and  not  men, 
in  other  words,  to  disregard  the  autliorities,  including  the  Tzar. 

The  denunciation  was  allowed  to  take  its  course.  Early  in 
November  of  the  same  year,  the  Tzaddik  Zalman  Borukhovich 
was  rearrested  in  Lozno  and  dispatched  to  St.  Petersburg 
under  the  convoy  of  two  Senatorial  couriers.  On  his  arrival 
in  the  capital  the  Tzaddik  was  incarcerated  in  the  fortress, 
and  after  a  cross-examination  confronted  with  his  accuser 
Avigdor.  Zalman  again  replied  in  writing  to  the  indictments 
against  him,  which  now  mounted  up  to  nineteen  counts.  He 
repudiated  emphatically  the  charge  of  not  recognizing  the 
authority  of  the  Government,  of  immorality,  of  collecting 
money,  and  arranging  meetings  for  secret  purposes.  Towards 
the  end  of  November  Zalman  was  set  at  liberty,  but  was 
ordered  to  remain  in  St.  Petersburg  pending  the  examination 
of  his  case  by  the  Senate,  to  which  it  had  now  been  transferred 
from  the  Secret  Expedition.  While  the  Senate  was  preparing 
to  take  up  the  case,  the  palace  revolution  of  March,  1801,  cut 
short  Paul's  reign,  and  placed  Alexander  I.  upon  the  throne. 
The  political  wind  veered  round,  and  on  March  29,  1801,  the 
new  Tzar  gave  Zalman  permission  to  depart  from  St.  Peters- 
burg. 

Having  satisfied  itself  that  the  religious  schism  in  Juda- 
ism was  perfectly  harmless  from  the  political  point  of  view, 
the  Government  was  ready  to  give  it  its  sanction.    One  of  the 


INNER  LIFE  UNDER  ENLIGHTENED  ABSOLUTISM     379 

clauses  of  the  Statute  of  1804  permits  the  sectarians  to  estab- 
lish their  o^vti  synagogues  in  every  community  and  to  elect 
their  own  rabbis,  with  the  sole  stipulation  that  the  Kahal 
administration  in  each  city  shall  remain  one  and  the  same 
for  all  sections  of  the  community.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the 
law  merely  recognized  what  had  already  become  the  living 
practice.  The  religious  split  had  long  been  an  accomplished 
fact,  and  the  internecine  strife  of  1796-1801  was  merely  its 
final  act.  As  for  the  communal  organization  of  the  Jews,  which 
had  already  been  undermined  by  the  political  changes,  the 
schism  proved  nothing  short  of  disastrous.  The  Kahals,  weak- 
ened by  inner  struggles  and  demoralized  by  denunciations  and 
bureaucratic  interference,  failed  to  present  a  united  front  in  the 
first  years  of  Alexander's  reign,  when  the  Government  was 
carrying  out  its  "  plan  of  reform,"  and  invited  the  Kahal 
leaders  to  share  in  its  labors.  The  communities  of  the  South- 
west, which  were  completely  under  the  ban  of  Hasidic  mysti- 
cism, reacted  feebly  to  the  social  and  economic  crisis  facing 
them.  The  Jewish  delegates  who  presented  their  views  in  reply 
to  the  official  inquiries  of  1803  and  1807  *  were  recruited  prin- 
cipally from  the  White  Eussian  and  Lithuanian  Governments, 
where  the  political  sense  of  the  Jews  had  not  yet  been  com- 
pletely dulled. 

3.  Eabbinism,  Hasidism,  and  Enlightened 
"  Berlinerdom  " 

While  in  Western  Europe  the  old  forms  of  Jewish  life  were 
breaking  up,  the  cultural  development  of  the  Jewish  masses 
of  Eastern  Europe  remained  stationary.  The  two  dominating 
forces  in  their  spiritual  life,  Eabbinism  and  Hasidism,  watched 

'  See  pp.  339,  349, 


380  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

with  equal  zeal  over  the  maintenance  oF  the  old  order  of  things. 
The  traditional  form  of  education  remained  unchanged.  The 
old  school,  the  heder  and  yeshibah,  with  its  exclusive  Talmudic 
training,  supplied  its  pupils  with  a  vast  amount  of  mental 
energy,  but  failed  to  prepare  them  for  practical  life,  and  the 
girls  and  women  remained  entirely  outside  the  influence  of  the 
school.  Just  as  firmly  established  was  the  old-fashioned  scheme 
of  family  life,  with  its  early  marriages,  between  the  years  of 
thirteen  and  sixteen,  with  the  prolonged  maintenance  of  such 
married  children  in  the  paternal  home,  with  its  excessive  fer- 
tility in  the  midst  of  habitual  poverty,  with  its  reduction  of 
physical  wants  to  the  point  of  exhaustion  and  degeneration. 
This  patriarchal  mass  of  Jews  fought  shy  of  all  cultural 
"  novelties,"  and  deprecated  the  slightest  attempt  to  extend  its 
mental  and  social  horizon.  Keligious  culture  had  not  yet  had  a 
chance  to  cross  swords  with  secular  culture.  The  war  between 
Hasidism  and  Kabbinism  was  fought  on  purely  religious  soil. 
Its  sole  issue  was  the  type  of  the  believer:  the  old  discipline 
with  its  emphasis  upon  the  scholastic  and  ceremonial  aspect  of 
Judaism  was  fighting  against  the  onrush  of  ecstatic  mysticism 
and  the  blind  "  cult  of  saints." 

It  cannot  be  said  that  benumbed  Rabbinism  revived  under 
the  effect  of  this  vehement  contest.  At  the  time  we  are  speak- 
ing of  no  distinct  traces  of  such  a  revival  are  to  be  seen,  and  all 
one  can  discern  are  the  signs  of  a  purely  scholastic  renaissance. 
The  method  of  textual  analysis  introduced  by  Elijah  Gaon  into 
Talmudic  research,  which  took  the  place  of  the  hair-splitting 
casuistry  formerly  in  vogue,  gained  ever  wider  currency  and 
an  ever  firmer  foothold  in  the  yeshibahs  of  Lithuania. 

In  the  new  center  of  Talmudic  learning,  the  yeshibah  of 
the  Lithuanian  townlet  of  Volozhin,'  established  in  1803.  this 

[*  In  the  Government  of  Vilna.] 


INNER  LIFE  UNDER  ENLIGHTENED  ABSOLUTISM     3SI 

novel  method  received  i^articular  attention  at  the  hands  of  its 
founder,  Eabbi  Hayyim  Volozhiner,  a  pupil  of  the  Gaon.  The 
yeshibah  of  Volozhin  raised  a  whole  generation  of  scholars  and 
rabbis  "  in  the  spirit  of  the  Gaon."  In  these  circles  one  could 
even  detect  a  certain  amount  of  toleration  towards  the  anathe- 
matized "  secular  sciences,"  though  this  toleration  was  limited 
to  the  realm  of  mathematics  and  partly  that  of  natural  history. 
The  Gaon,  who  had  himself  engaged  in  mathematical  exercises 
in  his  spare  moments,  permitted  his  pupil  Borukh  Shklover 
to  publish  a  Hebrew  translation  of  Euclid's  Geometry  (1780). 
Yet  the  dread  of  philosophy  was  as  great  as  theretofore, 
and  the  incompatibility  of  free  research  with  Judaism  was 
looked  upon  as  an  inviolable  dogma.  The  Jewish  mind  con- 
tinued to  move  within  the  narrow  range  of  "  the  four  ells  of  the 
Halakha,"  and  was  doomed  to  sterility.  In  the  course  of  that 
whole  stormy  period,  extending  over  a  quarter  of  a  century, 
Eabbinism,  aside  from  the  Gaon,  had  not  put  forward  a  single 
literary  figure  of  any  magnitude,  not  a  single  writer  of  large 
vision.  It  seemed  as  if  the  spirit  of  originality  had  fled  from  it. 
Greater  productivity  was  to  be  found  among  the  Hasidim  of 
the  period,  although  in  point  of  originality  it  yielded  con- 
siderably to  the  preceding  era  of  the  Besht  and  his  first  apostles. 
Alongside  of  triumphant  practical  Tzaddikism,  trading  in  mir- 
acles and  thriving  on  the  credulity  of  the  masses,  we  observe  to 
a  certain  degree  the  continued  development  of  the  Hasidic 
doctrine  on  the  lines  laid  down  by  Besht.  In  the  North  a  new 
Hasidic  theory  was  spreading,  which  strove  to  adapt  the 
emotional  pietism  of  Besht  to  the  "  intellectualism  "  of  the 
Lithuanian  schoolmen.  The  originator  of  this  doctrine,  Eabbi 
Shneor  Zalman,  the  hero  of  the  religious  struggle  depicted  in 


382  THE  JEWS  IN   RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

the  foregoing  chapters,  endeavored  to  rationalize  llasidism, 
which  had  manifested  a  decided  leaning  toward  the  principle 
credo  quia  absurdum  sit.  In  the  hands  of  the  author  of 
Tanyo,  the  ecstasy  of  feeling  is  transformed  into  ecstasy  of 
thinking.  Occasionally  he  speaks  of  the  knowledge  of  God  in 
terms  worthy  of  a  Maimonides.  Needless  to  say,  Rabbi  Zalman 
rejects  the  Tzaddik  cult  in  the  vulgar  form  of  miracle-monger- 
ing,  which  it  had  assumed  in  the  South. 

In  the  South — to  speak  more  exactly,  in  the  Ukraina — 
llasidism  persisted  in  the  beaten  track.  Its  two  pillars,  Levi 
Itzhok  (Isaac)  of  Berdychev  (died  1809)  and  Nohum 
(Nahum)  of  Chernobyl  (died  1799),  continued  to  uphold 
Besht's  traditions.  The  former,  the  author  of  Kedushaih  Levi  ' 
(1798),  manifests  in  his  work  the  genuine  fervor  of  Hasidic 
faith,  without  its  morbid  ecstasy.  In  his  private  life  this  leader 
of  Volh}Tiian  Hasidism  was  the  embodiment  of  lovingkindness, 
extending  alike  to  Jew  and  non-Jew.  j\Iany  popular  legends 
tell  of  his  surpassing  affection  for  the  humble  and  suffering. 
The  Tzaddik  Nohum  of  Cliernobyl,  who  was  an  itinerant 
preacher  in  the  Government  of  Kiev,  laid  in  his  sermons  special 
emphasis  on  the  element  of  the  Cabala.  Towards  the  end  of 
his  life  he  was  primarily  a  Tzaddik,  of  the  "  practitioner  "  and 
"  miracle-worker  "  type,  and  founded  the  "  Chernobyl  Tzad- 
dik dynasty,"  which  is  still  widely  ramified  in  the  Ukraina. 

Quite  apart  from  the  rest  stands  the  figure  of  the  Podolian 
Tzaddik  and  dreamer  Nahman  of  Bratzlav  (1778-1810),  a 
great-grandson  of  Besht.  Gifted  with  a  profoundly  poetical 
disposition,  he  spurned  the  beaten  tracks  of  the  professional 
"  Eighteous,"  and  struck  out  into  a  path  of  his  own.  The  goal 
he  aimed  at  was  the  return  to  the  childlike  simplicity  of 

['  "  The  Holiness  of  Levi."] 


INNER  LIFE  UNDER  ENLIGHTENED  ABSOLUTISM     383 

Besht's  teachings.  In  1798-1799  Nahman  made  a  pilgrimage 
to  Palestine,  just  about  the  time  when  Bonaparte's  army  was 
marching  through  the  Holy  Land,  and  a  gust  from  tempestuous 
Europe  drifted  through  the  shimbering  East,  But  the  Po- 
dolian  youth  had  an  ear  only  for  the  whisper  from  the  tombs 
of  the  great  Cabalist  teachers,  Eabbi  Shimeon  ben  Yohai  and 
Ari,  and  for  the  discourses  of  the  living  Tzaddiks  who  had  set- 
tled in  Tiberias.  On  his  return  to  Europe,  ISTahman  made  his 
home  in  Bratzlav,  and  became  the  head  of  a  group  of  Podolian 
Hasidim.  In  his  intimate  circle  he  was  Avont  to  preach,  or 
rather  to  muse  aloud,  on  the  reign  of  the  spirit,  on  the  com- 
munion of  the  Tzaddik  with  his  flock  in  religious  ecstasy.  He 
spoke  in  epigrams,  sometimes  clothing  his  thoughts  in  the 
form  of  folk-tales.  He  wrote  a  number  of  books,*  in  which  he 
constantly  emphasized  the  need  of  blind,  unsophisticated  faith. 
Philosophy  he  regarded  as  destructive  to  the  soul;  Maimonides 
and  the  rationalists  were  hateful  to  him.  The  unfamiliar 
Berlin  "  enlightenment  "  filled  his  heart  with  mysterious  awe. 
Xahman's  life  was  cut  short  prematurely.  Surrounded  by 
his  admirers,  he  died  of  consumption,  in  Uman,  at  the  age  of 
thirty-eight.  Down  to  this  day  his  grave  serves  as  a  place  of 
pilgrimage  for  the  '■■  Bratzlav  Hasidim." 

However,  the  average  Tzaddik  of  the  type  which  had  as- 
sumed definite  shape  in  that  period  was  equally  removed  from 
the  complexity  of  Eabbi  Zalman  and  the  simplicity  of  Eabbi 
Xahman.  On  the  whole,  the  Tzaddiks  drifted  further  and 
further  away  from  their  mission  of  religious  teachers,  and 
became  more  and  more  "  practitioners."  Surrounded  by  a 
host  of  enthusiastic  worshipers,  these  "  middlemen  between 

^ Likkute  Maharan.  "Collected  Sayings  of  MaHaRaN  "   [abbre- 
viation of  Aforenu  Ha,-Rah  Rabbi  JN^ahman],  and  others. 
25 


3Si  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA   AND  POLAND 

God  and  maiikiud  "  understood  the  art  of  turning  the  blind 
faith  of  the  masses  to  good  account.  They  waxed  rich  on  the 
gifts  and  offerings  of  their  admirers,  lived  in  palaces,  much 
after  the  manner  of  the  Polish  magnates  and  Church  dig- 
nitaries. The  "court"  of  Besht's  grandson  in  Medzhibozh, 
Borukh  Tulchinski  (1780-1810),  was  marked  by  particular 
splendor.  Borukh  even  had  his  court-fool,  Herschel  Ostro- 
poler,  the  well-known  hero  of  popular  anecdotes. 

In  the  original  Polish  provinces,  afterwards  incorporated 
into  the  Duchy  of  Warsaw,  the  commanders-in-chief  of  the 
Hasidic  army  were  two  Tzaddiks,  Rabbi  Israel  of  Kozhenitz 
and  I\abbi  Jacob  Itzbok  (Isaac)  of  Lublin.  Tliese  two  pupils 
of  the  ''  apostle  "  Baer  of  Mezherich  became  the  pioneers  of 
Hasidism  on  the  banks  of  the  Vistula  towards  the  end  of  the 
eighteenth  century.  At  the  close  of  their  careers — both  djed  in 
1815 — the  banner  of  Hasidism  floated  over  the  whole  of 
Poland. 

The  breezes  of  Western  culture  had  hardly  a  chance  to  pene- 
trate to  this  realm,  protected  as  it  was  by  the  double  wall  of 
Eabbinism  and  Hasidism.  And  yet  here  and  there  one  may 
discern  on  the  surface  of  social  life  the  foam  of  the  wave  from 
the  far-off  West.  From  Germany  the  free-minded  "  Berliner," 
the  nickname  applied  to  these  "  new  men,"  was  moving  to- 
wards the  borders  of  Russia.  He  arrayed  himself  in  a  short 
German  coat,  cut  off  his  earlocks,  shaved  his  beard,  neglected 
the  religious  observances,  spoke  German  or  "  the  language  of 
the  land,"  and  swore  by  the  name  of  Moses  Mendelssohn.  The 
culture  of  which  he  was  the  banner-bearer  was  a  rather  shallow 
enlightenment,  which  affected  exterior  and  form  rather  than 
mind  and  heart.  It  was  "  Berlinerdom,"  the  harbinger  of  the 
more  complicated  Haskala  of  the  following  period,  which  was 


INNER  LIFE  UNDER  ENLIGHTENED  ABSOLUTISM     385 

imported  into  Warsaw  during  the  decade  of  Prussian  dominion 
(1796-1806).  The  contact  between  the  capitals  of  Poland  and 
Prussia  yielded  its  fruits.  The  Jewish  "  dandy "  of  Berlin 
appeared  on  the  streets  of  Warsaw,  and  not  infrequently  the 
long  robe  of  the  Polish  Hasid  made  way  timidly  for  the 
German  coat,  the  symbol  of  "  enlightenment.'' 

Alongside  of  this  external  assimilation,  attempts  were  also 
made  to  copy  the  literary  models  of  Prussian  Jewry.  In  1796 
a  Jewish  Mendelssohnian  named  Jacques  Kalmansohn  pub- 
lished a  French  pamphlet  in  Warsaw,  under  the  title  Essai  sur 
I'etat  actuel  des  Juifs  de  Pologne  et  leur  perfectibilite,  dedi- 
cating it  to  the  Prussian  Minister  Hoym,  who  had  carried  out 
Jewish  reforms  in  the  Polish  provinces  of  Prussia.  The 
pamphlet  contains  an  account  of  the  status  of  Polish  Jewry 
of  his  time  and  a  plan  for  its  amelioration.  The  account  is 
rather  superficial,  concocted  after  the  approved  Western 
recipe.  In  the  judgment  of  the  author,  the  misfortune  of  the 
Jews  lies  in  their  separation  from  the  surrounding  nations, 
and  their  happiness  in  merging  with  them.  The  scheme  of 
reform  proposed  by  the  Jew  Kalmansohn  differs  but  slightly 
from  the  Polish  projects  of  Butrymovich  and  Chatzki.  It 
advocates  equally  the  weakening  of  rabbinical  and  Kahal 
authority,  the  extermination  of  Hasidism  and  Tzaddikism, 
the  introduction  of  German  dress,  the  shaving  of  beards,  the 
establishment  of  German  schools,  and  in  general  the  cultiva- 
tion of  "  civism." 

The  mould  of  Berlin  fashion  was  overlaid  with  a  Parisian 
veneer  when  soon  afterwards  (1807-1812),  at  the  bidding  of 
Napoleon,  the  Duchy  of  Warsaw  sprang  into  being.  Now  a 
new  note  was  sounded.  A  group  of  Parisian  "  dandies  "  claim 
equal  rights  as  a  compensation  for  having  changed  their  dress 


386  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

and  their  "  moral  conduct."  *  Even  respectable  representatives 
of  the  Warsaw  Jewish  community  designate  themselves  in  their 
petition  to  the  Senate  as  "  members  of  the  Polish  nation  of  the 
Mosaic  persuasion/*  copying  the  latest  Parisian  fashion,  in 
vogue  at  the  time  of  the  Napoleonic  Synhedrion.'  This  was 
the  first,  though  as  yet  naive  and  unsophisticated,  attempt  to 
secure  the  "  transfer  "  from  the  Jewish  nation  to  the  Polish,  the 
germ  of  the  future  "  Poles  of  the  Old  Testament  persuasion." 
The  torch-bearers  of  Berlin  culture  from  among  the  followers 
of  David  Fricdlander  encouraged  this  frame  of  mind  in  every 
possible  manner,  and  in  their  organ '  constantly  appealed  in 
this  spirit  to  their  Polish  brethren. 

How  long  will  you  continue — one  of  these  appeals  reads — to  speak 
a  corrupt  German  dialect  [Yiddish]  instead  of  the  language  of 
your  country,  the  Polish?  How  many  misfortunes  might  have 
been  averted  by  your  forefathers,  had  they  been  able  to  express 
themselves  adequately  in  the  Polish  tongue  before  the  magnates 
and  kings!  Take  a  group  of  a  hundred  Jews  in  Germany,  and 
you  will  find  that  either  all  or  most  of  them  can  speak  to  the 
magnates  and  rulers,  but  in  Poland  scarcely  five  or  ten  out  of  a 
hundred  are  capable  of  doing  so. 

Some  stray  seeds  of  Western  "  enlightenment "  were  carried 
as  far  as  the  distant  Eussian  North.  During  Dyerzhavin's  tour 
of  inspection  through  White  Russia  there  flitted  across  his 
vision  the  figure  of  the  physician  Frank  in  Kreslavka,  an 
avowed  follower  of  Mendelssohn,  calling  for  religious  and  edu- 
cational reforms.*  In  St.  Petersburg,  in  the  house  of  the 
Maecenas  Abraham  Peretz,  lived  his  teacher  Judah  Leib  Nye- 

U  See  p.  300.] 
'  See  p.  301. 

["  The  Hebrew  periodical  Ha-Me'assef  ("  The  Collector  "),  which 
was  founded  in  Berlin  in  1784,  and  appeared  until  1811.1 
*  See  p.  331. 


INNER  LIFE  UNDER  ENLIGHTENED  ABSOLUTISM     387 

vakhovieh,  a  native  oC  Podolia.  lu  1803,  the  same  3'ear  in  which 
the  Jewish  deputies  sojourned  in  St.  Petersburg,  Nyevakhovich 
published  a  pamphlet  in  Eussian,  under  the  title,  "  The  Wailing 
of  the  Daughter  of  Judah,"  with  a  dedication  to  Kochubay,  the 
Minister  of  the  Interior  and  Chairman  of  the  "  Jewish  Commit- 
tee." The  dedication  strikes  the  keynote  of  the  "  Wailing  " : 
genuflexion  before  the  greatness  of  Kussia  and  mortification 
at  the  fate  of  his  coreligionists,  who  are  deprived  of  their 
share  in  the  "  blessings  "  of  the  coimtry. 

"  How  greatly,"  exclaims  the  author,  "  doth  my  soul  exult 
over  these  matters  [the  victories  and  might  of  the  Eussian 
Empire]  ;  how  deeply  doth  it  grieve  over  my  coreligionists, 
who  are  removed  from  the  hearts  of  their  compatriots." 
And  throughout  the  whole  of  the  pamphlet  the  "  Daughter 
of  Judah  "  bewails  the  fact  that  neither  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury, "  the  age  of  humanity,  toleration,  and  meekness,"  nor 
"  the  smiling  spring  of  the  present  century,  the  beginning  of 
which  hath  been  crowned  ....  by  the  accession  of  Alexander 
the  Merciful,  has  removed  the  deep-seated  Jewish  hatred  in 
Russia."  "  Many  minds  doom  the  tribe  of  Judah  to  contempt. 
The  name  '  Judean '  hath  become  an  object  of  ridicule,  con- 
tempt, and  scorn  for  children  and  the  feeble-minded."  With 
particular  reference  to  Mendelssohn  and  Lessing  the  author 
exclaims :  "  You  search  for  the  Jew  in  man.  Search  for  man 
in  the  Jew,  and  you  will  no  doubt  find  him." 

jSTyevakhovich's  pamphlet  concludes  with  a  grievous  moan: 

While  the  hearts  of  all  the  European  nations  have  drawn  nearer 
to  one  another,  the  Jewish  people  still  finds  itself  despised.  I  feel 
the  full  weight  of  this  torment.  I  appeal  to  all  who  have  sympathy 
and  compassion.  Why  do  you  sentence  my  entire  people  to  con- 
tempt? Thus  waileth  sadly  the  daughter  of  Judah,  wiping  her 
tears,  sighing  ana  yet  uncomforted. 


;i^S8  '^^^^  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

The  author  himself,  by  the  way,  subsequently  managed  to 
obtain  comfort.  A  few  years  after  the  publication  of  the 
'  Wailing,"  still  finding  himself  "  removed  from  the  hearts  of 
his  compatriots,"  he  discovered  the  magic  key  to  these  obstrep- 
erous hearts.  He  embraced  Christianity,  and,  transformed  into 
Lev  Alexandrovich  Nyevakhovich,  began  to  write  moralizing 
Russian  plays,  which  pleased  the  unsophisticated  taste  of  the 
Russian  public  of  the  day.  Xyevakhovich  thus  carried  his 
"  Berlinerdom  ''  to  that  dramatic  denouement  which  was  in 
fashion  in  Berlin  itself,  where  an  epidemic  of  baptism  was  rag- 
ing. His  example  was  followed  by  his  patron  Abraham  Peretz, 
who  had  been  ruined  in  the  War  of  1812  by  military  contracts. 
The  descendants  of  both  converts  occupied  important  posts  m 
the  Russian  civil  service.  One  of  the  Peretz  family  was  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Council  of  State  during  the  reign  of  Alexander  II. 

A  faint  reflection  of  the  Western  literature  of  enlighten- 
ment is  visible  during  this  period  on  the  somber  horizon  of 
Russia.  Mendel  Lewin,  of  Satauov '  (1741-1819),  who  had 
been  privileged  to  behold  in  the  flesh  the  Father  of  Enlight- 
enment in  Berlin,  scattered  new  seeds  in  his  native  country. 
He  translated  into  Hebrew  the  popular  manual  of  medicine  by 
Tissot,  the  moral  philosophy  of  Franklin,  and  the  books  of 
travel  by  Campe.  He  also  made  an  attempt  to  render  the  Book 
of  Proverbs  and  Ecclesiastes  into  the  vernacular  Yiddish. 

The  last  undertaking  drew  upon  Lewin  the  wrath  of  another 
"  enlightened  "  writer,  Tobias  Feder  of  Piotrkov  and  Berdy- 
chev  (died  1817),  who  attacked  him  savagely  for  "  profaning  " 
Holy  Writ  by  turning  it  into  the  "  language  of  the  street." 
Feder  himself  published  studies  in  Hebrew  grammar  and 
Biblical  exegesis,  moralizing  treatises,  harmless  satires,  and 

\}  In  Podolia.] 


INNER  LIFE  UNDER  ENLIGHTENED  ABSOLUTISM     389 

poetical  odes.  These  publications  cannot  be  said  to  mark  an 
epoch  in  the  realm  of  literature,  but  they  undoubtedly  symbol- 
ize a  new  departure  in  cultural  life.  The  secular  book,  of  which 
the  mere  appearance  was  apt  to  arouse  a  murmur  of  discontent 
among  the  alarmed  Orthodox,  takes  its  place  side  by  side  with 
the  religious  literature  of  Rabbinism  and  Hasidism.  These 
literary  attempts  were  the  harbingers  of  the  subsequent  secu- 
larization of  Hebrew  literature. 


CHAPTER  XII 

THE  LAST  YEAES  OF  ALEXANDEK  I. 
1,  "  The  Deputation  of  the  Jewish  People  " 

The  great  reaction  of  1815-1848,  which  kept  the  whole  of 
Europe  in  its  throes,  assumed  peculiar  forms  in  liussia.  Tzar 
Alexander  I.,  one  of  the  triumvirs  of  the  Holy  Alliance,  which 
had  given  birtli  to  this  reaction,  was  eager  to  atone  for  the 
liberal  "  sins  "  of  his  youth,  and  was  cultivating  in  Russia  the 
principles  of  "  paternal  administration "  and  "  Christian 
government."  The  last  decade  of  his  reign  paved  the  way 
for  the  iron-handed  absolutism  of  Nicholas  I.,  which  fettered 
tlie  political  and  social  life  of  Russia  for  thirty  years,  and 
stood  like  an  ominous  specter  of  medievalism  before  the  eyes  of 
Western  Europe. 

The  destinies  of  the  great  monarchy  of  the  East  determined 
those  of  the  greatest  Jewish  center  of  the  Diaspora.  The 
Vienna  Congress  of  1815  enlarged  the  borders  of  European 
Russia  by  including  in  it  almost  the  entire  territory  of  the 
former  Duchy  of  Warsaw,  which  was  renamed  "  Kingdom 
of  Poland." '  About  two  million  Jews  were  huddled  together 
on  the  western  strip  of  the  Russian  monarchy  during  the 
period  of  1815-1848,'  and  this  immense,  sharply  marked  popu- 

[*  In  Russian,  Tzarstvo  Polskoye.  The  names  Congress-Poland 
and  Russian  Poland  are  also  frequently  used.] 

-  The  statistics  of  the  period  are  far  from  being  accurate.  They 
are  nevertheless  nearer  the  truth  than  those  of  the  preceding  age. 
The  official  "  revisions ''  of  1816-1819  brought  out  the  fact  that  a 
large  number  of  Jews  had  not  been  entered  on  the  lists,  and  the 
Government  took  severe  measures  against  those  evading  the  cen- 
sus. Relying  upon  official  information,  Jost  (see  his  Neuere  Ge- 
schicfte  (lev  Israeliten,  ii.  122)  computed,  in  1845,  the  total  number 
of  Jews  in  Russia,  including  those  of  the  Kingdom  of  Poland,  at 
1,600,000,  but  he  was  careful  to  point  out  that,  in  his  opinion, 
the  actual  number  of  Jews  was  considerably  larger. 


THE  LAST  YEARS  OF  ALEXANDER  I  391 

lation  served  as  the  subject  of  all  possible  experiments,  which 
assumed  the  coloring  of  the  general  Eussian  politics  of  the  time. 
The  last  years  of  Alexander  I.  inaugurate  the  period  of  patron- 
age and  oppression,  which  reached  its  culmination  in  the 
following  reign. 

The  attitude  of  the  Eussian  Government  towards  the  Jews 
during  that  period  reflects  three  successive  tendencies :  first, 
in  the  last  years  of  Alexander  I.'s  reign  (1815-1825),  a  mixed 
tendency  of  "benevolent  paternalism  "  and  severe  restrictions ; 
second,  during  the  first  half  of  Nicholas  I.'s  reign  (1826-1840), 
a  military  tendency,  that  of  "  correcting  "  the  Jews  by  sub- 
jecting their  youth,  from  the  age  of  childhood,  to  the  austere 
discipline  of  conscription  and  barrack  training,  accompanied 
by  compulsory  religious  assimilation  and  by  an  unprecedented 
recrudescence  of  rightlessness  and  oppression;  and  third, 
during  the  latter  part  of  Nicholas's  reign  (1840-1855),  the 
"enlightened"  tendency  of  improving  the  Jews  by  establish- 
ing "  crowTi  schools  "  and  demolishing  the  autonomous  struc- 
ture of  Jewish  life,  while  keeping  in  force  the  former  cruel 
disabilities  (1840-1855).  This  endless  "correctional"  and 
"  educational "  experimenting  on  a  whole  people,  aggravated 
by  the  resuscitation  of  ritual  murder  trials  and  wholesale 
expulsions  in  approved  medieval  style,  makes  the  history  of 
Eussian  Jews  during  that  period  an  uninterrupted  tragedy. 

The  beginning  of  the  period  did  not  seem  to  portend  evil. 
Kmperor  Alexander  returned  from  the  Vienna  Congress  with- 
out harboring  aggressive  plans  against  the  Jews.  On  the  con- 
trary, he  remembered  the  patriotic  services  rendered  by  the 
Jews  in  1812  and  the  promise  given  by  him  at  Bruchsal  "  to 
ameliorate  their  condition."  *     As  a  matter  of  fact,  several 

V  See  p.  359.] 


392  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

steps  were  taken  which  *eeinod  to  point  in  the  direction  of 
improvement. 

The  first  manifestations  of  this  tendency  were  certain  ad- 
ministrative changes  in  the  management  of  Jewish  affairs. 
The  ukase  of  January  18,  181?,  ordered  the  Senate  to  ^^ubnlit 
all  matters  affecting  the  Jewish  communes,  with  the  exception 
of  legal  cases,  to  the  General  Manager  of  the  Spiritual  Affairs 
of  Foreign  Denominations,  a  post  occupied  by  Golitzin,  the 
Tzar's  associate  in  Christian  pietism  and  mystical  infatuation. 
Later  in  the  same  year,  the  combined  ^Ministry  of  Ecclesiastic 
Affairs  and  Public  Instruction  was  organized,  under  the 
guidance  of  Golitzin,  symbolizing,  as  it  were,  the  establishment 
of  public  instruction  upon  the  foundations  of  "  Christian 
piety."  The  charter  of  the  new  organization  distinctly  pro- 
vides that  all  "  Jewish  matters  in  charge  of  the  Senate  and  the 
Ministers "  are  to  be  transmitted  to  the  head  of  the  new 
Ministry.  In  this  manner  tlie  Jewish  question  was  officially 
connected  with  the  department  of  ecclesiastic  affairs,  which 
at  that  time  occupied  a  central  place  in  the  administration. 

The  departmental  change  was  followed  by  a  more  substantial 
reform.  The  Government  recognized  the  necessity  of  establish- 
ing at  the  Ministry  of  Ecclesiastic  Affairs  a  permanent  ad- 
visory council  composed  of  elected  Jewish  representatives  or 
"  deputies  of  the  Jewish  conmiunes."  The  project  was  sug- 
gested by  the  ephemeral  and  accidental  endeavors  in  the  way  of 
popular  Jewish  representation  on  the  part  of  the  two  purveyors, 
Sonnenberg  and  Dillon,  who  were  attached  to  the  headquarters 
of  the  Russian  army  during  the  campaign  of  1812.  At  the 
audience  at  which  Alexander  I.  gave  these  deputies  the  as- 
surance that  the  condition  of  their  coreligionists  would  be 


THE  LAST  YEARS  OF  ALEXANDER  I  393 

improved/  they  were  also  told  to  appear  in  the  capital  after 
the  conclusion  of  the  M'ar  for  the  purpose  of  acquainting 
the  Kahals  with  the  plans  of  the  Government.  The  deputies 
accordingly  appeared  in  St,  Petersburg,  and  entered  upon 
their  duties  as  Jewish  spokesmen,  which  they  exercised  during 
181G  and  1817.  They  realized,  however,  that  they  had  no  right 
to  regard  themselves  as  the  accredited  representatives  of  the 
Jewish  communities  of  Eussia,  and  therefore  appealed  to  the 
Government — Sonnenberg  was  particularly  active  in  this  direc- 
tion— to  instruct  all  the  Kahals  to  elect  a  complete  group  of 
deputies  in  due  form.  The  Government  having  agreed  to  the 
proposal,  a  clause  was  included  in  the  instructions  to  the  newly- 
established  Ministry  of  Ecclesiastic  Affairs,  to  the  effect  that 
*'  the  [names  of  the]  deputies  of  the  Jewish  communes  shall 
after  their  election  be  submitted  by  the  Minister  to  his  Majesty 
for  ratification." 

In  the  autumn  of  1815  all  the  large  Kahals  received  orders 
from  the  governors  to  choose  an  electoral  college,  two  electors 
for  each  Government.  In  August,  1818,  the  twenty-two  elec- 
tors chosen  from  eleven  Governments  assembled  in  Vilna  to 
elect  from  their  own  midst  three  deputies  and  an  equal  number 
of  substitutes.  The  choice  fell,  apart  from  the  former  deputies 
Sonnenberg  and  Dillon,  on  Michael  Eisenstadt,  Benish  Lap- 
kovski,  and  Marcus  Veitelson,  all  from  the  Government  of 
A'itebsk,  and  Samuel  Epstein  from  the  Government  of  Vilna. 
I'o  provide  for  the  expenses  of  the  deputies,  who  were  to  live  in 
St.  Petersburg,  the  Vilna  conference  issued  an  appeal  to  all 
Jewish  communities  calling  upon  them  to  make  an  "  em- 
broidery collection,"  i.  e.  to  cut  off  and  convert  into  cash  the 

[» See  p.  359.] 


394  THE  JEWS   IN   rUSSIA   AND  POLAND 

embroidered  collars  Avhich  well-to-do  Jews  attat-hed  to  their 
"  Kittels  "  (shrouds  woru  beneath  the  prayer  shawls  on  the 
Day  of  Atonement),  though  the  alternative  of  donating  their 
value  in  money  was  alloAvcd.  The  Jews,  who  had  been  ruined 
during  the  war,  were  evidently  not  in  a  position  to  tax  them- 
selves directly. 

Soon  afterwards  followed  the  establishment  of  a  special 
department,  which  was  placed  at  the  service  of  "  the  Deputation 
of  the  Jewish  People,"  the  name  by  which  this  college  of  depu- 
ties, presided  over  by  the  energetic  Sonnen])erg,  was  frequently 
designated.  The  "  college,"  either  as  a  whole  or  through  its 
individual  members,  labored  for  seven  years  (1818-1825),  but 
its  activity  was  too  limited  to  justify  the  expectations  of 
Russian  Jewry.  The  hope  of  the  deputies,  that  they  would  be 
consulted  about  the  general  problems  bearing  on  the  proposed 
amelioration  of  Jew^ish  conditions,  failed  to  materialize.  On 
the  contrary,  the  Government  had  in  the  meantime  abandoned 
all  thought  of  legislative  reforms,  and  a  little  later  even  began 
to  contrive  ways  and  means  of  carrying  into  effect  the  restric- 
tive clauses  of  the  Statute  of  1804,  which  had  been  suspended 
in  its  operation  by  the  War  of  1813. 

The  deputies,  who  resided  in  St.  Petersburg  and  did  a  great 
deal  of  lobbying,  frequently  managed  in  their  intercourse  with 
the  officials  to  ferret  out  these  "  designs  "  of  the  authorities 
and  to  communicate  their  findings  secretly  to  the  Kahal 
loaders  in  the  provinces.  At  the  same  time  they  endeavored 
of  theij  own  accord  to  avert  the  danger  by  personal  negotiations 
with  the  leading  officials.  While  reporting  on  the  one  hand  to 
the  Kahals,  the  deputies  on  the  other  hand  transmitted  to  Go- 
litzin,  the  Minister  of  Ecclesiastic  Affairs,  the  petitions  of  the 
Kahals  and  their  complaints  against  the  local  administration. 
The  deputies  w'ere  thus  reduced,  by  the  force  of  circumstances. 


THE  LAST  YEARS  OF  ALEXANDER  I  .  395 

to  mere  go-betweens  in  Jewish  matters.  In  exercising  this 
function,  some  of  them,  Sonnenberg  in  particular,  were  inde- 
fatigable. They  tried  the  patience  of  the  high  officials  with 
their  petitions  and  representations,  and  on  one  occasion  Son- 
uenberg  was  even  deprived  of  his  post  of  deputy  for  "  imper- 
tinent conduct  towards  the  authorities."  The  bureaucracy  of 
St.  Petersburg  began  to  resent  these  endless  solicitations  and 
this  constant  meddling  with  their  plans. 

Gradually  the  deputies  themselves  lost  heart,  having  realized 
their  impotence  in  grappling  with  the  rising  wave  of  reaction. 
Some  of  them  left  St.  Petersburg  altogether.  The  downfall  of 
Golitzin's  Ministry  of  Ecclesiastic  Affairs,  which  had  been 
undermined  by  the  ultra-reactionary  Arakcheyev  party,*  in- 
volved, as  a  natural  consequence,  the  downfall  of  the  curious 
Jewish  representation  affiliated  with  it.  Golitzin's  successor 
as  ^Minister  of  Public  Instruction,  the  obscurantist  Shishkov, 
made  representations  to  the  Tzar  concerning  the  necessity  of 
abolishing  the  institution  of  Jewish  deputies,  "  numerous 
instances  having  demonstrated  that  their  stay  here  is  not 
only  unnecessary  and  useless  but  even  very  harmful,  inasmuch 
as,  under  the  pretext  of  working  for  the  public  interest,  they 
collect  money  from  the  Jews  for  no  purpose,  and  prematurely 
advertise  the  decisions  and  even  the  intentions  of  the  Govern- 
ment." In  1825  the  "  Deputation  of  the  Jewish  People  "  was 
abolished.  Thus  ended  an  organization  beautifully  conceived, 
but  mutilated  in  execution,  one  that  might  well  have  served  as  a 
substitute  for  Jewish  communal  representation,  and  might  have 

[^Alexis  Arakcheyev  (b.  1769)  had  been  prominent  in  Russian 
military  affairs  under  Paul  and  Alexander,  and  had  attained  to 
fame  on  account  of  his  iron  discipline.  Beginning  with  1814, 
he  gradually  gained  the  complete  confidence  and  friendship  of 
Alexander.    He  died  in  1834.] 


396  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

softened  the  regime  of  caprice  and  blighting  patronage  which 
ate  deeper  and  deeper  into  the  vitals  of  Russian  politics. 

2.  Christianizing  Endeavors 

It  was  quite  in  harmony  with  the  spirit  of  the  new  era  that 
the  solicitude  of  the  Russian  Government  for  the  Jews  should 
have  manifested  itself  in  an  attempt  at  saving  their  souls. 
Christian  pietism  was  the  fashion  of  the  day,  and  Alexander  I, 
and  Golitzin,  the  j\Iinister  of  Ecclesiastic  Affairs,  both  of  whom 
were  mystically  inclined,  conceived  the  idea  of  becoming  the 
instruments  of  Divine  Providence  in  converting  the  Jews  to 
Christianity.  Golitzin,  who  was  the  president  of  the  Russian 
Bible  Society,  and  was  anxious  to  make  it  a  faithful  copy  of 
its  English  model,  the  Missionary  Bible  Society  of  London, 
approached  the  missionary  problem  in  his  own  way.  On  March 
25,  1817,  the  Tzar  published  an  ukase  calling  for  the  formation 
of  a  "  Society  of  Israelitish  Christians,'^  for  the  purpose  of 
assisting  Jews  already  converted  or  preparing  for  conversion. 

We  have  learned — tl-"^  ukase  reads — of  the  difficult  situation  bi 
those  Jews  who,  having  by  Divine  Grace  perceived  the  light  of 
Christian  truth,  have  embraced  the  same,  or  are  making  ready  to 
join  the  flock  of  the  good  Shepherd  and  the  Savior  of  souls.  These 
Jews,  whom  the  Christian  religion  has  severed  from  their  brethren 
in  the  flesh,  lose  every  means  of  contact  with  them,  and  not  only 
have  forfeited  every  claim  to  their  assistance,  but  are  also  exposed 
to  all  kinds  of  persecutions  and  oppressions  on  their  part.  Nor 
do  they  readily  find  shelter  among  Christians,  their  new  brethren 

in  the  faith,  to  whom  they  are  as  yet  unknown For  this 

reason  we,  taking  to  heart  the  fate  of  the  Jews  converted  to  Chris- 
tianity, and  prompted  by  reverent  obedience  to  the  Voice  of  Bliss 
which  calleth  unto  the  scattered  sheep  of  Israel  to  join  the  faith 
of  Christ,  have  deemed  it  right  to  adopt  measures  for  their  welfare. 


THE  LAST  YEARS  OF  ALEXANDER  I  397 

The  "  welfare  ''  held  out  to  the  converts  was  of  a  rather 
substantial  nature.  Each  of  their  groups  was  to  be  allotted 
free  crown  lands  in  the  southern  and  northern  provinces,  witli 
the  right  of  founding  all  kinds  of  settlements,  townlets,  and 
cities.  They  were  to  be  granted  full  civil  equality,  extensive 
comniutial  self-government,  and  special  alleviations  in  the  pay- 
ment of  taxes.  These  gToups,  or  colonies,  of  Jews,  after  being 
converted  to  the  Greek  Orthodox,  Catholic,  or  Lutheran  faith, 
were  to  form  part  of  the  ''  Society  of  Israelitish  Christians," 
Mhich  was  to  be  managed  by  a  special  committee  to  be  ap- 
pointed in  St.  Petersburg  under  the  patronage  of  the  Emperor. 
The  solemn  phraseology  of  the  Imperial  ukase  shows  unequivo- 
cally that  the  Government  was  not  satisfied  with  the  modest 
task  of  rendering  assistance  to  occasional  neophytes.  It  was 
ready  to  embark  upon  a  vast  undertaking,  that  of  encouraging 
baptism  among  the  Jewish  population,  and  organizing  the  con- 
verted masses  into  separate,  privileged  communes,  to  serve  as  a 
bait  for  the  Jews  still  languishing  in  their  old  beliefs.  The 
imagination  of  the  Eussian  legislators  pictured  to  them  the 
fascinating  spectacle  of  huge  masses  of  Jews  marching  "  to 
join  the  faith  of  Christ,"  drawn  to  it  not  only  by  heavenly,  but 
also  by  earthly,  "  bliss." 

The  missionary  mood  of  the  heads  of  the  Eussian  Govern- 
ment was  speedily  utilized  by  Lewis  Way,  a  representative  of  the 
London  Bible  Society.  Way  was  thoroughly  imbued  with  the 
apocalyptic  belief  in  the  approaching  redemption  of  Israel 
under  the  aegis  of  Christianity.  This  however  did  not  prevent 
liim  from  looking  upon  present-day  unconverted  Israel  with 
sciutiments  of  profound  respect,  as  the  banner-bearer  of  a  great 
Divine  mission  in  the  history  of  mankind,  and  he  was  d£cply 
aroused  over  tlie  civil  disabilities  to  which  they  were  subjecte'd 


398  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA   AND   POLAND 

in  the  various  countries  of  Europe.  When  the  moijarclis  who 
had  concluded  the  Holy  Alliance  assembled,  in  the  autumn  of 
1818,  with  their  ministers  and  diplomats  at  the  Congress  in 
Aix-la-Chapelle,  Way  grasped  the  occasion  to  submit  to  Alex- 
ander I.  a  "  Memorandum  Concerning  the  Condition  of  the 
Jews,"  '  in  which  he  appealed  to  the  Russian  Tzar  to  emancipate 
the  Jews  of  his  dominions  and  persuade  the  Prussian  and 
Austrian  rulers  to  do  likewise. 

In  the  course  of  my  protracted  travels  through  the  lands  of 
Poland,  for  the  purpose  of  gathering  information  about  the  Jews, 
I  came — says  Way — to  the  conclusion  that  Providence  has  not  in 
vain  placed  so  many  thousands  of  Jews  under  the  protection  of 
three  Christian  sovereigns.  Rather  has  this  taken  place  in  fulfil- 
ment of  the  promises  given  to  the  Patriarchs. 

If  the  Jews  are  to  join  tlie  flock  of  Christ,  they  ought  to  be 
treated  like  children,  and  regarded  as  equal  mem])ers  of  human 
society.  Captive  Israel  must  be  set  free  materially,  before  it 
can  be  liberated  spiritually.  Way  therefore  implores  the  Rus- 
sian Tzar  to  set  the  example,  "  which  will  produce  its  effect 
upon  the  whole  world." 

The  Tzar  received  Way's  memorandum,  and  turned  it  over  to 
Nesselrode,  the  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs,  with  instructions 
to  submit  it  to  the  Congress  for  consideration.  At  a  meeting 
of  Ministers-Plenipotentiary,  representing  Russia,  Austria, 
Prussia,  England,  and  Prance,  held  on  November  21,  1818, 
Way's  memorandum,  together  with  his  elaborate,  printed  pro- 
ject for  a  pan-European  "  reform  of  the  civil  and  political 
legislation  "  affecting  the  Jews,  came  up  for  discussion.  The 
diplomats,  who  were  least  of  all  concerned  about  the  Jewish 

*It  was  written  in  French,  under  the  title  Menioires  (sic!)  sur 
I'etat  des  Israelites. 


THE  LAST  YEARS  OF  ALEXANDER  I  399 

question,  and  had  no  desire  to  make  this  "  domestic  affair  "  of 
each  Government  an  object  of  international  negotiations, 
agreed  upon  the  following  resolution : 

Without  entering  into  the  merits  of  the  view  entertained  by  the 
author  of  the  project,  the  conference  recognizes  the  justice  of  his 
general  tendency,  and  takes  cognizance  of  the  fact  that  the  pleni- 
potentiaries of  Austria  and  Prussia  [Metternich  and  Hardenberg] 
have  declared  themselves  ready  to  furnish  all  possible  information 
concerning  the  Jewish  situation  in  those  two  monarchies  in  order 
to  clarify  a  problem  which  must  claim  the  attention  equally  of 
the  statesman  and  the  humanitarian. 

By  means  of  this  liollov ,  liberal-sounding  phrase,  which  did 
not  involve  the  slightest  obligation,  the  diplomats  managed 
to  rid  themselves  of  this  vexatious  problem,  even  the  perfunc- 
tory attention  given  to  it  at  the  Congress  having  been  prompted 
by  no  other  motive  than  consideration  for  the  Eussian  Em- 
peror. For  the  rest,  every  one  of  the  three  allied  Governments 
which  had  distributed  Poland  among  themselves  went  on  to 
handle  "  its "  Jews  according  to  the  requirements  of  its 
domestic  policy,  which  was  frankly  reactionary,  and  was  not 
even  disguised  by  the  fictitious  label  of  humanitarianism. 

The  same  domestic  policy  continued  in  Kussia.  The  Tzar, 
who  abroad  had  listened  benevolently  to  Way's  appeal  for  the 
civil  emancipation  of  the  Jews,  irrespective  of  the  future  sal- 
\ation  of  their  souls,  decided,  when  at  home  again,  to  leave 
everything  untouched,  looking  for  a  partial  solution  of  the 
Jewish  problem  to  the  fantastic  endeavors  of  the  Society  of 
Israelitish  .Christians.  Undeterred  by  the  fact  that  the  solemn 
appeal  issued  by  the  Tzar  in  1817  had,  during  the  three  years 
since  its  promulgation,  failed  to  attract  a  single  group  of  con- 
verts, for  the  simple  reason  that  such  groups  were  not  in 
26 


400  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

existence,  there  being  only  rare  isolated  instances  of  baptism, 
prompted  in  most  cases  by  questionable  motives,  the  Govern- 
ment set  aside,  in  1820,  a  large  tract  of  land  in  the  Government 
of  Yekaterinoslav  for  a  future  settlement  of  "  Israelitish 
Christians."  It  even  appointed  a  special  official,  with  the  title 
Curator,  to  take  charge  of  it. 

But  year  after  year  passed  by  and  the  empty  land  was  waiting 
in  vain  for  settlers,  while  the  idle  Curator  was  just  as  vainly  on 
the  lookout  for  someone  to  take  care  of.  At  last,  in  1823,  an 
obscure  group  of  "  Israelitish  Christians "  appeared  on  the 
scene.  It  consisted  of  thirty-seven  families  from  Odessa,  who 
expressed  their  willingness  to  accept  the  free  lands  with  all  the 
manifold  rights  and  privileges  attached  to  them.  Subsequent 
inquiries  from  the  office  of  the  Governor-General  of  New  Rus- 
sia revealed  the  fact,  however,  that  the  claimants  to  the  public 
pie,  though  confessing  the  Greek  Orthodox  faith,  did  not  pos- 
sess certificates  of  baptism,  and  could  not  even  produce  pass- 
ports, with  the  result  that  the  application  of  the  adventurers 
was  denied. 

At  last,  realizing  the  impracticability  of  the  whole  mission- 
ary scheme,  Count  Golitzin  advised  Alexander  I.,  in  1824,  to 
dissolve  the  mythical  Society  of  Israelitish  Christians  with  its 
Board  of  Trustees,  which  by  that  time  carried  a  whole  staff 
of  Government  officials  on  its  budget.  The  Tzar  refused  to 
liquidate  by  official  action  an  undertaking  which  had  been 
heralded  so  solemnly,  and  the  society  Avithout  a  membership, 
administered  by  trustees  without  a  trust,  continued  to  figure  on 
the  lists  of  Government  institutions  until  1833,  when  Nicholas 
I.  issued  a  curt  ukase  putting  a  sudden  end  to  this  bureaucratic 
phantom.  The  new  ruler  had  in  the  meantime  discovered  en- 
tirely different  and  by  uo  means  fantastic  contrivances  for  driv- 


THE  LAST  YEARS  OF  ALEXANDER  I  401 

iiig  the  Jews  into  the  fold  of  the  Orthodox  Church.  These  con 
trivances  were  the  military  barracks  and  the  institution  oi 
Cantonists. 

3.  "  JuDAiziNG "  Sects  in  Russia 

While  the  Russian  authorities  were  dreaming  of  a  wholesale 
conversion  of  Jews  to  Christianity,  their  attention  was  diverted 
by  the  ominous  spectacle  of  huge  numbers  of  Christians  em- 
bracing a  doctrine  closely  akin  to  Judaism.  The  Russian 
officials  disclosed  the  existence  of  a  sect  of  "  Sabbatarians  " 
and  "  Judaizers  "  in  the  Governments  of  Yoronyezh,  Saratov, 
and  Tula,  all  of  them  without  Jewish  residents,  who  might 
otherwise  have  been  suspected  of  a  missionary  propaganda 
among  the  Greek  Orthodox.  The  new  "  Judaizing  "  heresy 
first  engaged  the  attention  of  the  central  Government  in  1817, 
when  a  group  of  peasants  in  the  region  of  Voronyezh  addressed 
a  petition  to  the  Tzar  in  which  they  naively  complained  of  "  the 
oppressions  which  they  had  had  to  undergo  at  the  hands  of  the 
local  authorities,  both  ecclesiastic  and  civil,  on  account  of 
their  confessing  the  law  of  Moses."  Acting  under  Imperial 
instructions,  Golitzin  gave  orders  "  to  examine  most  rigor- 
ously "  the  origin  of  the  "  sect,"  for  the  purpose  of  preventing 
its  further  spread  and  bringing  back  the  renegades  into  tho 
fold  of  Orthodoxy. 

The  Greek  Ortliodox  Archbishop  of  Voronyezh  reported,  in 
substance,  as  follows : 

The  sect  came  into  existence  about  1796 '  "  through  natural 
Jews."  It  afterwards  spread  to  several  settlements  in  the  districts 
of  Bobrov  and  Pavlovsk.  The  essence  of  the  sect,  without  being 
directly  an  Old  Testament  form  of  Jewish  worship,  consists  of  a 

■  According  to  subsequent  accounts  the  date  was  1806. 


402  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

few  [Jewish]  ceremonies,  such  as  Sabbath  observance  and  cir- 
cumcision, the  arbitrary  manner  of  contracting  and  dissolving 
marriages,  the  way  of  burying  the  dead,  and  prayer  assemblies. 
The  number  of  avowed  sectarians  amounts  to  one  thousand  five 
liundred  souls  of  both  sexes,  but  the  secret  ones  are  in  all  likeli- 
hood more  numerous. 

To  extermiuate  the  sect,  the  Archbishop  of  Voronyezh  pro- 
poses various  measures,  to  be  carried  out  partly  by  the  ecclesi- 
astic authorities  and  partly  by  the  police,  among  them  the 
deportation  of  the  soldier  Anton  Eogov,  the  propagandist  of 
the  heresy. 

Similar  reports  from  the  ecclesiastic  authorities  of  Tula, 
Orlov,  Saratov,  and  other  Great  Russian  Church  districts  were 
soon  received  by  the  Synod.  The  "  Judaizing  heresy  "  spread 
rapidly  to  the  villages  and  cities,  appealing  alike  to  peasants 
and  merchants.  Whenever  taken  to  task,  the  sectarians  de- 
clared that  they  longed  to  return  to  the  Old  Testament  and 
"  maintain  the  faith  of  their  fathers,  the  Judeans." 

The  central  authorities  were  alarmed,  and  resorted  to 
extraordinary  measures  to  check  the  spread  of  the  schism.  The 
Committee  of  Ministers  approved  the  following  draconian 
project  submitted  by  Count  Kochubay  in  1823 : 

The  chiefs  and  teachers  of  the  Judaizing  sects  are  to  be  im- 
pressed into  military  service,  and  those  unfit  to  serve  deported  to 
Siberia.  All  Jews  are  to  be  expelled  from  the  districts  in  which 
the  sect  of  Sabbatarians  or  "  Judeans  "  has  made  its  appearance. 
Intercourse  between  the  Orthodox  inhabitants  and  the  sectarians 
is  to  be  thwarted  in  every  possible  manner.  Every  outward  dis- 
play of  the  sect,  such  as  the  holding  of  prayer-meetings  and  the 
observance  of  ceremonies  which  bear  no  resemblance  to  those 
of  Christians,  is  to  be  forbidden.  Finally,  to  make  the  sectarians 
an  object  of  contempt,  instructions  are  to  be  given  to  designate 


THE  LAST  YEARS  OF  ALEXANDER  I       40:5 

the  Sabbatarians  as  a  Jewish  '  sect  and  to  publish  far  and  wide  that 
they  are  in  reality  Zhyds,  inasmuch  as  their  present  designation 
as  Sabbatarians,  or  adherents  of  the  Mosaic  law,  does  not  give 
the  people  a  proper  idea  concerning  this  sect,  and  does  not  excite 
in  them  that  feeling  of  disgust  which  must  be  produced  by  the 
realization  that  what  is  actually  aimed  at  is  to  turn  them  into 
Zhyds. 

All  these  police  regulations,  in  addition  to  a  scheme  of 
disciplinary  ecclesiastic  measures,  proposed  by  tlie  Synod  for 
the  purpose  "  of  uprooting  the  Judean  sect,''  were  sanctioned  by 
Alexander  I.  (February  and  September,  1825).  The  tragic 
consequences  of  these  reprisals  came  to  light  only  during  the 
following  reign.  Entire  settlements  were  laid  waste,  thousands 
of  sectarians  were  banished  to  Siberia  and  the  Caucasus.  j\Iany 
of  them,  unable  to  endure  the  persecution,  returned  to  the  Or- 
thodox faith,  but  in  many  cases  they  did  so  outwardly,  con- 
tinuing in  secret  to  cling  to  their  sectarian  tenets. 

4.  Eeceudescence  of  Anti-Jewish  Legislation 

As  far  as  the  Jews  are  concerned,  the  immediate  result  of 
these  measures  was  insignificant.  The  number  of  Jews 
involved  in  the  decree  of  expulsion  from  the  affected  Great 
Russian  Governments  was  infinitesimal,  since,  owing  to  the 
restriction  of  the  Jewish  right  of  residence,  the  only  Jews 
occasionally  to  be  found  there  were  a  few  traveling  salesmen 
or  distillers.  Yet,  indirectly,  the  Judaizing  movement  had  a 
harmful  effect  upon  the  position  of  Russian  Jewry.  The  Gov- 
ernment circles  of  St.  Petersburg,  which  were  religiously  at- 
tuned, were  irritated  by  the  fact  that  so  many  from  the  Ortho- 

[*  In  the  original,  Zhydovskaya,  adjective  derived  from  Zhyd. 
See  p.  320,  n.  2.1 


404  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

dox  fold  went  over  to  the  camp  of  the  very  people  ainoug  whom 
the  Government  had  been  hunting  vainly  for  proselytes,  and 
while  the  colonies  so  hospitably  prepared  for  the  Israeli tish 
Christians  were  clamoring  for  inhabitants,  many  Great  Rus- 
sian villages  had  to  be  stripped  of  their  inhabitants,  who  were 
deported  to  Siberia,  on  account  of  their  Jewish  leanings.  In 
the  mind  of  Golitzin,  the  Minister  of  Ecclesiastic  Affairs,  the 
opinion  gained  ground  that  "  the  Jews  are  enjoined  by  their 
tenets  to  convert  everybody  to  their  religion."  These  circum- 
stances produced  in  Eussian  official  circles  a  frame  of  mind 
conducive  to  repressive  measures,  and  helped  to  provide  a 
moral  justification  for  them.  Accordingly,  the  last  years  of 
Alexander  I.'s  reign  were  marked  by  a  recrudescence  of  reli- 
gious oppression,  which  at  times  assumed  the  dimensions  of 
wholesale  persecutions. 

Sentiments  of  this  kind  were  responsible  for  the  medieval 
prohibition  against  keeping  Christian  domestics.  The  pro- 
hibition was  suggested  by  Golitzin,  a  man  otherwise  far  re- 
moved from  anti-Semitic  prejudices,  and  was  officially  justified 
in  the  Senatorial  ukase  of  April  32,  1820,  by  the  alleged  prose- 
lytism  of  the  Jews.  As  instances  of  the  latter  the  Senate  quotes 
the  Judaizing  movement  in  the  Government  of  Voronyezh, 
the  communication  of  the  Governor  of  Kherson  concerning 
certain  Christian  domestics  in  Jewish  homes,  who  had  adopted 
Jewish  customs  and  ceremonies,  and  so  forth. 

The  same  motives,  strengthened  by  the  tendency  of  remov- 
ing the  Jews  from  the  villages,  long  since  pursued  by  the  Gov- 
ernment, suggested  harsher  restrictions  in  letting  to  Jews 
manorial  estates  with  the  peasant  "  souls  "  attached  to  them. 
tJkases  issued  in  1819  and  in  subsequent  years  enjoin  the  local 
administration  to  prosecute  all  so-called  "  krestentzya  "  con- 


THE  LAST  YEARS  OF  ALEXANDER  I  405 

tracts,  transactions  whereby  the  squire  leased  the  harvest  of  a 
given  year  to  a  Jew,  entitling  him  to  employ  the  peasants 
for  gathering  the  grain  and  hay  and  for  other  agricultural 
labors.  Such  transactions  were  looked  upon  as  a  criminal  en- 
croachment of  the  Jews  upon  the  right  of  owTiing  slaves,  which 
was  the  prerogative  of  the  nobles.  Orders  were  accordingly 
given,  that  all  such  farm  leases  be  taken  away  from  the  Jews, 
in  spite  of  the  complete  ruin  of  the  Jewish  lessees,  who  were 
left  to  settle  their  accounts  wath  the  squires. 

At  the  same  time  the  Government  set  out  again  to  realize  its 
devout  consummation — the  expulsion  of  the  Jews  from  the  vil- 
lages and  hamlets  already  provided  for  by  the  Statute  of  1804, 
though  suspended  for  a  time  when  the  cruelty  of  the  measure 
spelling  ruin  to  tens  of  thousands  of  Jewish  families  had 
become  apparent.  The  arguments  by  means  of  which  the 
Jewish  Committee  had  endeavored  in  1812  to  convince,  and 
finally  did  convince,  the  Government  of  the  impracticability 
of  such  a  migration  of  nations,  were  blotted  out  from  memory. 
The  local  and  central  authorities  were  again  on  the  war  path 
against  the  Jews.  To  renew  the  campaign  against  the  rural 
Jews,  the  methods  which  had  been  tried  with  success  in  the 
time  of  Dyerzhavin  were  again  resorted  to.  "When,  in  1821, 
hapless  White  Eussia  was  again  stricken  by  a  famine,  which 
affected  the  Jew«?  to  a  considerable  extent,  the  local  iiol.'ility 
was  once  more  on  the  alert,  placing  the  whole  responsibility 
for  the  ruin  of  the  peasantry  on  the  Jewish  tenants  and  saloon- 
keepers. The  landlords  proposed  that  the  Government  expel 
all  the  Jews  from  the  province  or  at  least  forbid  thenj  to  sell 
spirits  in  the  rural  settlements,  since  the  Jews  "  lead  the 
peasants  into  ruin."     The  local  authorities,  in  reply  to  an 


406  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAf^D 

inquiry  of  Senator  Baranov,  who  had  been  dispatched  from  St. 
Petersburg  to  White  Eussia,  expressed  a  similar  opinion. 

The  question  was  first  brought  up  before  the  Committee 
which  was  charged  with  the  task  of  giving  relief  to  the 
Governments  of  White  Eussia,  and  included  several  ministers, 
among  them  the  all-powerful  Arakcheyev.  The  Eelief  Com- 
mittee approved  the  restrictive  project  of  the  nobility,  and  so, 
a  little  later,  did  tlie  Committee  of  Ministers.  The  result  was  a 
stern  ukase  of  the  Tzar,  addressed,  on  April  11,  1823,  to  the 
governors  of  White  Eussia,  to  the  followiiig  efFeet : 

(1)  To  forbid  the  Jews  in  all  the  settlements  of  the  Govern- 
ments of  Moghilev  and  Vitebsk  to  hold  land  leases,  to  keep  public 
houses,  saloons,  hostelries,  posts,  and  even  to  live  in  them 
[in  the  villages],  whereby  all  farming  contracts  of  this  kind  are 
to  become  null  and  void  by  January  1,  1824.  (2)  to  transplant  all 
the  Jews  in  these  two  Governments  from  the  settlements  into  the 
cities  and  towns  by  January  1,  1825. 

I 

In  signing  this  ukase,  which  spelled  sorrow  and  misery  for 
thousands  of  families,  Alexander  I.  gave  verbal  instructions 
to  the  Committee  of  Ministers,  to  point  out  to  the  White  Eus- 
sian  Governor- General  Khovanski  "  ways  and  means  of  obtain- 
ing employment  and  designating  sources  of  livelihood  for  the 
local  Jews  in  their  new  places  of  abode."  But  no  "  ways  and 
means "  of  any  kind  could  mitigate  the  misery  of  people 
doomed  to  expulsion  from  their  old  nests  and  reduced  to 
beggary  and  vagrancy. 

Immediately  on  the  receipt  of  the  ukase  the  local  authorities 
embarked  upon  their  task  with  relentless  cruelty.  By  January, 
1834,  over  twenty  thousand  Jews  of  both  sexes  had  been  driven 
from  the  villages  of  both  Governments.  Hordes  of  hapless  refu- 
gees, with  their  wives  and  children,  began  to  flock  into  the 


THT^  LAST  YEARS  OF  ALEXANDER  I       407 

overcrowded  towns  and  townlets.  There  they  could  be  seen, 
stripped  almost  to  their  shirts,  wandering  aimlessly  in  the 
streets.  They  lived  in  frightful  congestion,  as  many  as  ten 
of  them  being  squeezed  into  a  single  room.  They  were  huddled 
together  in  the  synagogues,  while  many  of  them,  unable  to  find 
shelter,  remained  on  the  streets  with  their  families  facing  the 
winter  cold.  Sickness  and  increased  mortality  began  to  spread 
among  them,  particularly  in  the  city  of  Nevel.  Even  the  anti- 
Jewish  Governor-General  Khovanski,  who  was  making  a  tour 
of  inspection  through  the  stricken  district,  was  stirred  by  the 
spectacle,  and  advised  the  Committee  of  Ministers  to  stop  the 
disastrous  expulsions.  But  the  blow  had  heen  dealt.  By  the 
beginning  of  1825  the  majority  of  rural  Jews  had  been  expa- 
triated, and  turned  out  into  the  wide  world. 

The  question  naturally  arises,  whether  this  human  holocaust 
was  required  in  the  interest  of  the  country.  The  Government 
itself  gave  the  answer  twelve  years  later — when  it  was  too  late. 

As  far  as  White  Russia  is  concerned — quoth  the  Council  of  State 
in  1835 — experience  has  not  justified  our  anticipations  of  tlie  use- 
fulness of  the  indicated  measure  [the  expulsion  from  the  villages]. 
Twelve  years  have  passed  since  it  was  carried  into  effect,  but 
from  the  data  collected  in  the  Department  of  Law  it  is  quite 
manifest,  that,  while  it  has  ruined  the  Jews,  it  does  not  in  the  least 
seem  to  have  improved  the  condition  of  the  villagers. 

The  White  Kussian  orgy  of  destruction  was  merely  the  pre- 
lude to  a  new  legislative  campaign  against  the  Jews.  Almost 
simultaneously  with  the  ukase  ordering  the  expulsion  of  the 
Jews  from  the  villages,  another  ukase  was  issued  on  May  1, 
1823,  calling  for  the  establishment  of  a  new  "  Committee  for 
the  Amelioration  of  the  Jews."  The  Committee,  which  in- 
cluded among  its  members  the  Ministers  of  Interior,  Finance, 


408  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

Justice,  Ecclesiastic  Aifairs,  and  Public  Instruction,  was  in- 
trusted with  a  very  comprehensive  piece  of  Avork — 

to  examine  the  enactments  concerning  Jews  passed  up  to  date  and 
point  out  the  way  in  which  their  presence  in  the  country  might  be 
rendered  more  comfortable  and  useful,  also  what  obligations  they 
are  to  assume  towards  the  Government;  in  a  word,  to  indicate 
all  that  may  contribute  towards  the  amelioration  of  the  civil 
status  of  this  people. 

In  these  soft-spoken  terms  was  couched  the  public  function 
of  the  Committee.  But  its  secret  function,  which  later  revealed 
itself  in  action,  is  correctly  defined  in  the  frank  admission 
of  the  Committee  of  Ministers  in  its  report  of  1829 :  "  At  the 
very  establishment  of  the  Jewish  Committee  one  of  the  obliga- 
tions imposed  upon  it  was  to  devise  ways  and  means  looking 
generally  towards  the  reduction  of  the  number  of  Jews  in  the 
monarchy."  This  was  evidently  what  "  the  amelioration  of 
the  civil  status  "  of  the  Jews  amounted  to.  The  new  Committee 
was  instructed  to  finish  its  work  by  the  beginning  of  1824,  but 
its  reactionary  activity  was  not  fully  unfolded  until  the  fol- 
lowing reign. 

In  the  meantime  the  legal  machinery  did  not  remain  idle. 
The  process  of  the  territorial  compression  of  Jews  went  on 
as  before.  To  guard  the  western  frontier  of  the  monarchy 
against  smuggling,  it  was  decided,  at  the  suggestion  of  the 
Administrator  of  the  Kingdom  of  Poland,  Grand  Duke  Con- 
stantine  Pavlovich,  to  expel  the  Jews  from  the  border  zone. 
Two  ukases  were  issued  in  1825  ordering  the  removal  of  all 
the  Jews  residing  outside  the  cities  within  fifty  versts  from  the 
frontier,  with  the  exception  of  those  owning  immovable  prop- 
erty. Once  again  human  beings  were  hurled  from  their  life- 
long domiciles,  when  a  rational  policy  would  have  been  content 


THE  LAST  YEARS  OF  ALEXANDER  I  409 

with  instituting  a  closer  watch.  To  prevent  the  undesirable 
"  multiplication  of  Jews  "  in  the  border  Governments,  Jewish 
emigrants  from  neighboring  countries,  particularly  from  Aus- 
tria, were  forbidden  to  settle  in  Russia  (1824). 

N'eedless  to  say,  the  Governments  of  the  interior,  where  the 
Jews  could  sojourn  only  temporarih^  and  where  they  had  to 
produce  gubernatorial  passports,  like  foreigners,  were  carefully 
guarded  against  the  invasion  of  the  residents  of  the  Pale. 
On  his  last  trip  from  St.  Petersburg  to  Southern  Eussia  in 
September,  1825,  Alexander  I.  espied,  in  a  little  village  near 
Luga,'  a  Jewish  family,  which  was  engaged  in  making  tin-plate, 
and  he  at  once  inquired  "  on  what  ground  "  it  lived  there. 
The  Governor  of  St.  Petersburg  was  frightened,  and  gave 
orders  to  have  the  family  deported  immediately  from  the 
district,  to  censure  the  local  ispravniTc^  and  to  warn  the  guber- 
natorial authorities,  "  that  the  rules  concerning  the  Jews  must 
be  observed  with  all  possible  stringency." 

5.  The  Russian  Revolutioxaries  axd  the  Jews 

Such  was  the  attitude  of  the  Russian  Government  towards 
the  Jews.  But  what  was  the  attitude  of  the  Russian  people? 
Considering  the  character  of  the  age,  in  which  public  opinion 
was  not  able  to  express  itself  even  in  political  literature,  an 
answer  to  this  question  would  be  entirely  impossible,  had  not 
the  revolutionary  movement  of  the  Decembrists '  disclosed  the 
frame  of  mind  of  the  most  progressive  section  of  Russian 
society  in  its  relation  to  the  Jewish  question.  Taken  as  a  whole 
it  was  an  unfriendly  attitude.     It  reflects  the  utter  estrange- 

['  A  town  in  the  Government  of  St.  Petersburg.] 
['Police  inspector.] 
['  See  next  note.] 


410  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

ment  in  language,  in  manners,  and  in  culture  between  Jews  and 
Eussians  at  that  time,  an  estrangement  which  breeds  suspicion 
and  hostility.  The  Eussian  knew  no  more  of  the  life  of  the 
secluded  Jewish  populace  than  ho  did  of  the  life  of  the  Chinese. 
The  educated  Eussian  looked  with  suspicion  upon  the  exclu- 
siveness  of  patriarchal  Jewish  life,  the  unintelligible  religious 
ceremonies  which  surrounded  it,  the  rigorism  of  the  rabbis, 
the  ecstasy  of  the  Tzaddiks,  the  strange  emotionalism  of  the 
Hasidic  masses.  If  he  turned  to  books  for  an  explanation 
of  these  strange  phenomena,  he  would  find  it  in  the  current 
pamphlet  literature  of  Germany  or  Poland,  with  its  hackneyed 
phrases  about  the  fanaticism  of  the  "  chosen  people,"  a  "  state 
in  a  state,"  etc. 

The  attitude  of  the  Decembrists  *  towards  the  Jewish  problem 
reflects  the  conventional  ideas  of  an  age  of  reaction.  The 
"  Eussian  Truth  "  by  Pestel  contains  a  chapter  entitled  "  On 
the  Tribes  Populating  Eussia,"  in  which  the  Jewish  problem  is 
described  as  an  almost  indissoluble  political  tangle.  Pestel 
enumerates  the  peculiar  Jewish  characteristics  which,  in  his 
opinion,  render  the  Jews  entirely  unfit  for  membership  in  a 
social  order.  The  Jews  "  foster  among  themselves  incredibly 
close  ties  " ;  they  have  "  a  religion  of  their  own,  which  instils 
into  them  the  belief  that  they  are  predestined  to  conquer  all 
nations,"  and  "  makes  it  impossible  for  them  to  mix  with  any 

P  In  Russian,  Dyekahristy,  the  name  by  which  the  revolution- 
aries of  that  period  are  generally  designated.  They  frst  organized 
themselves  into  a  secret  league  consisting  of  Russian  army  officers 
in  the  latter  part  of  Alexander  I.'s  reign.  Their  open  revolt  took 
place  in  December  (hence  the  name),  1825,  immediately  after  the 
accession  of  Nicholas  I.  The  league  was  divided  into  a  "  Northern 
Society,"  led  by  Nikita  Muravyov,  and  a  "  Southern  Society,"  of 
which  Paul  Pestel  was  the  head.  The  latter  wrote  "  The  Russian 
Truth,"  a  work  in  which  he  expounded  the  revolutionary  pro- 
gram.] 


THE  LAST  YEARS  OF  ALEXANDER  I  41I 

other  nation."  The  rabbis*  wield  unlimited  sway  over  the 
masses ;  they  keep  the  people  in  spiritual  bondage,  "  forbid- 
ding the  reading  of  all  books  except  the  Talmud  "  and  other 
religious  writings.  The  Jews  "  are  waiting  for  the  coming  of 
the  Messiali,  who  is  to  establish  them  in  their  kingdom,"  and 
therefore  "  look  upon  themselves  as  temporary  residents  of  tlie 
land  in  which  they  live."  Hence  their  passion  for  commerce 
and  their  neglect  of  agriculture  and  handicrafts.  Since  com- 
merce alone  is  unable  to  provide  the  huge  masses  of  Jews  with 
a  livelihood,  cheating  and  trickery  are  considered  permissible, 
to  the  injury  of  the  Christians.  Pestel  has  no  eye  for  the  heavy 
burden  of  Jewish  disabilities,  and  even  considers  the  Jews 
a  privileged  class  of  the  population,  since  they  do  not  furnish 
any  recruits,  have  their  own  rabbinical  tribunals,  possess 
"'  the  right  of  educating  their  children  in  whatever  principles 
they  like,"  and  "  moreover  enjoy  all  tlie  rights  of  the  Christian 
nations  "  (  !). 

Such  was  tlie  vein  in  which  a  Eussian  revolutionary  leader 
wrote,  not  knowing,  or  perhaps  not  caring  to  know,  of  the 
iron  vise  of  the  Pale  of  Settlement,  of  the  pitiless  expulsions 
Avhich  were  taking  place  just  at  that  time,  ignorant  altogether 
of  the  whole  mesh  of  legal  restrictions  which  placed  the  Jews 
on  the  lowest  rung  of  Russian  rightlessness. 

After  presenting  this  picture  of  Jewish  life,  Pestel  suggests 
to  the  future  revolutionary  Government  ("  The  Supreme  Pro- 
visional Administration  ")  two  ways  of  solving  the  Jewish 
problem.  One  consists  in  breaking  up  "  the  influence  of  the 
close  relationship  among  the  Jews  so  injurious  to  the  Chris- 

'  Pestel  evidently  has  in  mind  the  Tzaddiks,  whom  he  had  occa- 
sion to  observe  specifically  in  Tulchyn,  his  Podolian  place  of 
residence,  and  more  generally  in  the  territory  controlled  by  the 
"  Southern  Society." 


412  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND 

tians/^  because  it  keeps  them  apart  from  the  other  citizens. 
For  this  purpose  he  advises  convoking  "  the  most  learned  rabbis 
and  the  most  intelligent  Jews  " — Pestel  had  evidently  heard  of 
Napoleon's  Synhedrion — "listening  to  their  representations/' 
and  thereupon  adopting  measures  for  eradicating  Jewish  ex- 
clusiveness,  for,  "  inasmuch  as  Eussia  does  not  expel  the  Jews, 
they  ought  to  be  the  more  careful  not  to  adopt  an  unfriendly 
attitude  towards  the  Christians." 

The  second  way  consists  in  an  honorable  expulsion  of  the 
Jews  or,  to  use  his  words,  "  in  assisting  the  Jews  to  form 
a  separate  commonwealth  of  their  own  in  some  portion  of  Asia 
Minor."  To  this  end  Pestel  makes  the  proposal  to  choose  a 
rallying-point  for  the  Jewish  people  and  to  supply  them  with 
some  troops  so  as  to  reinforce  them.    For,  as  Pestel  continues, 

were  all  the  Russian  and  Polish  Jews  to  congregate  in  one  place, 
they  would  number  over  two  millions.  Such  a  mass  of  people, 
being  in  search  of  a  fatherland  would  not  find  it  difficult  to  over- 
come all  obstacles  which  the  Turks  might  place  i:i  their  way,  and, 
after  traversing  the  whole  of  European  Turkey,  might  pass  over 
into  Asiatic  Turkey,  and,  having  occupied  an  adequate  area,  form 
a  separate  Jewish  State. 

Pestel  himself  felt  more  attracted  towards  the  latter  alter- 
native of  solving  the  Jewish  problem,^  but,  being  fully  aware 
that  "  this  gigantic  undertaking  depends  on  particular  cir- 
cumstances," he  did  not  formulate  it  as  "  a  special  obligation 
upon  the  Supreme  Administration." 

'  It  has  been  conjectured  that  Pestel  was  influenced  by  his 
fellow-Decembrist  Gregory  Peretz,  a  son  of  the  converted  tax- 
farmer  Abraham  Peretz  in  St.  Petersburg  (see  p.  333  and  p.  388). 
Peretz  advocated  on  numerous  occasions  the  necessity  of  organ- 
izing a  society  for  the  purpose  of  liberating  the  scattered  Jews 
and  settling  them  in  the  Crimea  or  in  the  Orient,  "  in  the  shape 
of  a  separate  nationality." 


THE  LAST  YEARS  OF  ALEXANDER  I  413 

Accordingly,  if  Pestel's  first  plan  had  materialized,  the  Jews 
of  Eussia  would  have  received  from  the  Supreme  Provisional 
Administration,  not  civil  equality,  but  a  stern  Reglement  of 
the  Austrian  or  Old  Prussian  type,  made  up  of  a  long  string  of 
"  correctional  measures  "  aiming  at  compulsory  assimilation  or 
Russification,  at  the  demolition  of  the  whole  cultural  autonomy 
of  Russian  Jewry,  not  excluding  "  the  right  of  educating  their 
children  in  whatever  principles  they  like,"  and  finally  culminat- 
ing in  the  economic  "  curbing  of  Jewry,"  perhaps  in  the  spirit 
of  that  very  Government  against  which  the  Decembrists  were 
fighting. 

Pestel's  views  on  Judaism  were  shared  by  many  Decembrists, 
but  not  by  all.  The  constitution  drafted  by  the  leader  of 
the  "  Northern  Society,"  ISTikita  j\Iuravyov,  originally  proposed 
to  grant  political  rights  to  the  Jews  only  within  their  Pale 
of  Settlement,  but  in  the  second  draft  this  limitation  was 
replaced  by  the  principle  of  perfect  equality. 


BALTIMORE,    MD.,   U.S.A. 


--'wl 


'  r  r:     J     uc; 


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